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SALT LAKE CITY -- Jupiter may have eaten so much nebula when it was forming that it now has a case of cosmic heartburn. New computer models suggest that it's inner core may be dissolving and bubbling up to the upper parts of the atmosphere due to its immense size and pressure.
Though Jupiter is twice the mass of the rest of the planets combined, the central rocky and icy core of the planet is smaller than Saturn's - only about 10 times the size of Earth where Saturn's is 15 or more. It's composed of magnesium oxide, iron oxide, silicon dioxide and lots of other heavier elements covered in a relatively thick layer of liquid hydrogen and helium, with hydrogen technically becoming a metal at these pressures.
But because of the plant's immense size, this core is under a pressure of 40 million times the pressure we experience here on earth, and a temperature hotter than the Sun, at about 20,000 degrees Celsius.
According to a study out of the University of California, Berkeley, at this pressure and temperature, some interesting things start to happen. Magnesium oxide acts more like a liquid, and dissolves into the metallic hydrogen above it.
This could go a long way to explaining some interesting things about Jupiter, like the fact that its outer atmosphere has a higher concentration of heavy elements in it than the rest of the planets, and even the Sun. You wouldn't expect this, since the planets and sun all formed from the same nebulous material. This study suggests that's exactly what you would see if a planet's core dissolves when it gets big enough.
It also could explain why Saturn's core is so much bigger than Jupiter's - Saturn's total mass isn't big enough to create the heat and pressure needed to cause the cosmic heartburn afflicting neighboring Jupiter.
The study was authored by Hugh Wilson and Burkhard Militzer fro the departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Astronomy, respectively.
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