Jovian and Terrestrial planet differences and similarities

Question

Jovian and Terrestrial planet differences and similarities

Answer 1

You mean gas giants vs terrestrial planets?

The gas giants are also sometimes called ice giants.  It turns out that water, which is really common, freezes to ice, which is stable in the vacuum of space if it is about the distance from the Sun as Jupiter, or farther.  When the planets were forming out there, water would freeze on dust and rocks and everything, quickly adding to the mass.  These objects became big fast, and got big enough to capture gas, like hydrogen, gravitationally.

Farther in, water isn't stable as ice, and vaporized as gas.  It didn't stick to the forming planets.  So these planets grew slower.  Earth is thought by some to have gotten it's water for oceans via comets. I'm not sure i believe it.

Of course, if you were talking about Jovian moons, that's another story.