Jupiter Discovered To Be Inhomogeneous – Metallicity Reveals New Clues About Planet’s Origin




According to recent study, Jupiter's gaseous envelope is not uniformly distributed, and its metallicity provides information about its origin.

The distribution of Jupiter's gaseous atmosphere is not uniform, according to a global team of scientists. The metal content of the inner region is higher than that of the outer regions, totaling between 11 and 30 earth masses, or 3 to 9 percent of Jupiter's overall mass. This level of metallicity leads to the conclusion that planetesimals of kilometer-scale sizes must have been involved in Jupiter's creation. On June 8, 2022, the study, which was directed by Yamila Miguel (SRON/Leiden Observatory), was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

We got a peek of Jupiter's breathtaking magnificence in 2016 when NASA's Juno space probe landed there. Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System. Jupiter turns out to be covered in hurricanes in addition to the well-known Great Red Spot, giving it the appearance and aura of a Van Gogh painting. However, the thin visible layer obscures the presence of the planet's envelope. Nevertheless, by detecting the gravitational force above various Jupiter sites, Juno is able to provide us with a picture. Astronomers can now learn more about the interior's composition, which differs from that of the surface.

The gaseous envelope is not as uniform and evenly mixed as previously believed, according to research lead by Yamila Miguel (SRON/Leiden Observatory). Instead, it has a greater contraction of "metals," or substances heavier than hydrogen and helium, near the planet's core. The scientists developed a number of theoretical models that follow the observational restrictions detected by Juno in order to arrive at their results.

The group looked at the metal distribution since it can tell them anything about how Jupiter was created. It turns out that the metals are not evenly distributed throughout the envelope, with more being found within than outside. Between 11 to 30 earth masses' worth of metals are included in the whole. The accretion of bigger planetesimals or smaller pebbles are the two ways that a gas giant like Jupiter might acquire metals during its creation, according to Miguel. We are aware that when a young planet reaches a certain size, it begins to expel stones. Before it, it was impossible to attain the level of metal richness that we currently observe inside Jupiter. Therefore, the possibility of Jupiter's genesis using just pebbles as solids is ruled out. Planetesimals have to have been involved since they are too large to have been stopped.

The discovery that the inner portion of the envelope contains more heavy elements than the outer portion indicates that there is no homogenous mixing across the envelope and that the abundance declines outward with a gradient. According to Miguel, "before we believed that Jupiter has convection, like boiling water, making it entirely mixed." "However, our research indicates otherwise."

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