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I'm not sure what "the five distant planets" means. There are four outer planets in the solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Jupiter and Saturn are mainly hydrogen and helium, and are usually called "gas giants" for this reason.

Uranus and Neptune have substantial atmospheres of hydrogen and helium, but also contain large amounts of methane, water, and ammonia; they're sometimes also called gas giants, but sometimes "ice giants" because in astronomer language, the words "gas" and "ice" don't have their ordinary everyday meanings.

Hydrogen and helium are "gases." Things that, at normal Earth temperatures, are gases or liquids are "ices" as long as they have melting points of at least 100 K. Things that are still solid at very high temperatures are "rocks", even if they're actually metals, because "metal" to an astronomer means "anything that isn't hydrogen or helium".

To add a fifth, we'd need to come in to Mars, which is a rocky body just like Earth is.

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Pansy O'Hara

Lvl 10
3y ago

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