Jupiter is made up of hydrogen and helium. The quantities of each are in line with the theoretical quantities. Astronomers call it heavy elements. The presence and distribution of metals tell a lot.
Jupiter had a lot of rocky planetesimals in its youth according to a new study.
Our understanding of Jupiter's formation and evolution has been changed by NASA's mission to Jupiter. The gravity science instrument is part of the mission. Radio signals are sent between the Deep Space Network and the planet. Researchers can learn more about Jupiter's composition from the process.
Jupiter started by accretion of rocky material. After a period of rapid gas accretion from the solar nebula, Jupiter became the largest planet on Earth. There is a question regarding the initial period. Is it possible that it acculturated larger amounts of rocks like planetesimals? Was it pebbles-sized material? Jupiter formed depending on the answer.
The study was set to answer that question. It is titled "Jupiter's inhomogeneous envelope" and it has been published. The author is an assistant professor at the observatory and the institute for space research.
The beautiful images of Jupiter can be seen thanks to the Juno mission. What we see is only a small part of the body. The clouds and storms are only a small part of the atmosphere. Jupiter has a deep atmosphere that is tens of thousands of kilometres deep.
Jupiter is the oldest planet in the solar system. Scientists would like to know how long it took to form. The authors of the paper wanted to look at the metals in the atmosphere. The Gravity Science experiment measured pebble dispersion throughout the atmosphere in order to understand Jupiter's formation. There was no data on Jupiter before the experiment.
Jupiter's atmosphere isn't as homogeneity as was thought. There are more metals near the planet's center. Between 11 and 30 Earth mass are the totals of the metals.
The team built models of Jupiter's internal dynamics. They write that they assemble the most comprehensive and diverse collection of Jupiter interior models to date and use it to study the distribution of heavy elements in the planet's envelope.
Two sets of models were made by the team. There are two sets of models, the first is 3-layer models and the second is diluting core models.
The accretion of small pebbles or larger planetesimals can be used to acquire metals for Jupiter. Baby planets start pushing out pebbles once they are big enough. It's impossible to get the richness of metals inside Jupiter before that. During Jupiter's formation, only pebbles can be excluded. Planetesimals are too large to be blocked.
There is a decrease in the amount of metals in Jupiter's interior. Scientists thought there was a lack of air movement in the planet. It was thought that Jupiter had boiling water like qualities. Our finding doesn't show the same thing.
The authors argue in their paper that the heavy element abundance is not a one-size-fits-all thing. The results show that Jupiter continued to accumulate heavy elements in large amounts while its hydrogen-helium envelope was growing, contrary to predictions based on the pebble-isolation mass in its simplest incarnation.
Even though Jupiter was young and hot, it didn't mix by convection.
Efforts to determine their metallicity are just one of the results of the team's work. A non-homogeneous envelope suggests a lower limit to the planet's bulk metallicity.
It was not possible to determine Jupiter's metallicity from a distance. Scientists were only able to measure the metallicity after the arrival of Juno. The bulk metallicity of the planet may not be inferred from remote atmospheric observations.
One of the tasks of the James Webb Space Telescope is to measure the atmosphere of exoplanets. This work shows that what is happening in the deeper layers of giant gas planets is not captured by the data that is provided.
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