Gas giant Gas giant A gas giant is a giant planet composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Gas giants are sometimes known as failed stars because they contain the same basic elements as a star. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants of the Solar System. The term "gas giant" was originally synonymous with "giant planet", but in the 1990s it became known that Uranus and Neptune are really a distinct class of giant planet, being composed mainly of heavier volatile substances (which are referred to as "ices"). For this reason, Uranus and Neptune are now often classified in the separate category
Sudarsky's gas giant classification their modeled physical atmospheric properties. In the Solar System, only Jupiter and Saturn are within the Sudarsky classification, and both are Class I. The appearance of planets that are not gas giants cannot be predicted by the Sudarsky system, for example terrestrial planets such as Earth and Venus, HD 85512 b (3.6 Earth masses) and OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb (5.5 Earth masses), or ice giants such as Uranus (14 Earth masses) and Neptune (17 Earth masses). The appearance of extrasolar planets is largely unknown because of the difficulty in making direct observations of extrasolar planets. In addition, analogies with planets in the Solar