by Ann » Mon Jul 11, 2016 7:39 pm
Asterhole wrote:Jupiter would most likely have a solid core, one the size of Earth and perhaps comprised of super-compressed pure carbon, that is diamond. Or it may be a mixture of ice and rock, who knows? The outer gaseous atmosphere would only be a few hundred miles deep at most, virtually a "paper-thin" layer. As we go deeper toward the core, the gases are transformed into a semiliquid state, then becoming a metallic form of hydrogen. Sounds crazy, yes but it's a best guess by those who know more than I do.
The way I have understood it, Jupiter may not have a solid core precisely because it is so massive. After all, we don't expect the Sun to have a solid core. We don't even expect tiny little
Proxima Centauri to have a solid core. We don't even expect
brown dwarfs to have a solid core.
Saturn, on the other hand, is only about
30% as massive as Jupiter even though it is much the same size, and it is indeed thought to have a solid core.
Space.com wrote about Jupiter and Saturn:
Researchers modeled 50,000 what-ifs of internal structure using real data from the two planets and lab experiments that show how material behaves under extreme pressure. They found Saturn has a huge core and Jupiter may have none.
"Heavy elements are concentrated in Saturn's massive core, while those same elements are mixed throughout Jupiter, with very little or no central core at all," said Didier Saumon of the Los Alamos National Laboratory...
Saumon speculates on what might have happened with Jupiter: The king of the nine planets contains 318 times more mass than Earth (Saturn contains about 95 Earth masses). Jupiter's core would have been melted to liquid under intense pressure during formation.
"If it accreted gas very, very fast, this large amount of mass would come crashing down fast enough to induce mixing of the core," he said. The sort of heavy elements which, in the center of Saturn form a core, were instead mushed around and spread throughout Jupiter...
Ann
[quote="Asterhole"]Jupiter would most likely have a solid core, one the size of Earth and perhaps comprised of super-compressed pure carbon, that is diamond. Or it may be a mixture of ice and rock, who knows? The outer gaseous atmosphere would only be a few hundred miles deep at most, virtually a "paper-thin" layer. As we go deeper toward the core, the gases are transformed into a semiliquid state, then becoming a metallic form of hydrogen. Sounds crazy, yes but it's a best guess by those who know more than I do.[/quote]
The way I have understood it, Jupiter may not have a solid core precisely because it is so massive. After all, we don't expect the Sun to have a solid core. We don't even expect tiny little [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri]Proxima Centauri[/url] to have a solid core. We don't even expect [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf]brown dwarfs[/url] to have a solid core.
Saturn, on the other hand, is only about [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_mass]30% as massive as Jupiter[/url] even though it is much the same size, and it is indeed thought to have a solid core.
[quote][url=http://www.space.com/180-giants-puzzling-differences-jupiter-saturn.html]Space.com[/url] wrote about Jupiter and Saturn:
Researchers modeled 50,000 what-ifs of internal structure using real data from the two planets and lab experiments that show how material behaves under extreme pressure. They found Saturn has a huge core and Jupiter may have none.
"Heavy elements are concentrated in Saturn's massive core, while those same elements are mixed throughout Jupiter, with very little or no central core at all," said Didier Saumon of the Los Alamos National Laboratory...
Saumon speculates on what might have happened with Jupiter: The king of the nine planets contains 318 times more mass than Earth (Saturn contains about 95 Earth masses). Jupiter's core would have been melted to liquid under intense pressure during formation.
"If it accreted gas very, very fast, this large amount of mass would come crashing down fast enough to induce mixing of the core," he said. The sort of heavy elements which, in the center of Saturn form a core, were instead mushed around and spread throughout Jupiter...
[/quote]
Ann