Outer planets concepts: Outer planets The outer planets are those planets in the Solar System beyond the asteroid belt, and hence refers to the gas giants and ice giants, which are in order of their distance from the Sun: The outer planets all have ring systems, although all but Saturn's are faint when viewed from Earth. Another aspect common to the gas giants is their many natural satellites (moons), two of which are larger than the planet Mercury (Jupiter's Ganymede and Saturn's Titan). That pair and Io, Callisto, Europa, and Triton, are larger than Pluto and Eris. This region of space is
History of Solar System formation and evolution hypotheses of dynamics makes capture most unlikely as it requires special conditions. Swiss astronomer Louis Jacot (in 1951, 1962, 1981), like Weisacker and Ter Haar, continued the Cartesian idea of vortices but proposed a hierarchy of vortices or vortices within vortices, i.e., a lunar system vortex, a Solar System vortex, and a galactic vortex. He put forward the notion that planetary orbits are spirals, not circles or ellipses. Jacot also proposed the expansion of galaxies (stars move away from the hub), and that moons move away from their planets. He also maintained that planets were expelled, one at a time, from