ice giant

[ ahys-jahy-uhnt ]

nounAstronomy.

a giant planet composed mostly of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium: the two ice giants in our solar system are Uranus and Neptune, previously classified as gas giants, but now known to be made primarily of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur.

Origin of ice giant

First recorded in 1975–80

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Researchers dubbed these omnipresent worlds “mini-Neptunes,” assuming them to be scaled-down versions of our solar system’s ice giants.
‘Hycean’ exoplanets could be home to the alien life we’ve been searching for | Charlie Wood | August 26, 2021 | Popular-Science
Inside the ice giants, however, these molecules mingle together into a slush that astronomers refer to generically as “ice”—hence the term ice giants.
The Planets with the Giant Diamonds Inside - Issue 102: Hidden Truths | Corey S. Powell | July 7, 2021 | Nautilus
Given how much water is inside the ice giants, and given how many ice giants astronomers are finding around other stars, superionic ice may actually be the most common form of water in the universe.
The Planets with the Giant Diamonds Inside - Issue 102: Hidden Truths | Corey S. Powell | July 7, 2021 | Nautilus
For the ice giant planets, however, the new technology had an opposite effect.
The Planets with the Giant Diamonds Inside - Issue 102: Hidden Truths | Corey S. Powell | July 7, 2021 | Nautilus
Seasons on the ice giants are also unlike anything seen on Earth or anywhere else.
The Planets with the Giant Diamonds Inside - Issue 102: Hidden Truths | Corey S. Powell | July 7, 2021 | Nautilus

It lies up there on the crest of the mountain like a mighty ice-giant peering down at us through the clefts.
Farthest North | Fridtjof Nansen

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