Jupiter's 10 most massive mysteries

[Admin]

Jupiter has come under close spacecraft scrutiny for more than 50 years. But the gas giant still has a host of secrets.

Jupiter's 10 most massive mysteries : Read more

 

[rod]

A very interesting list of 10 here I note from the article some points of interest when I read.

"HOW DID JUPITER GET ENRICHED IN HEAVY ELEMENTS, COMPARED WITH THE SUN?"

"Jupiter is 317 times more massive than the Earth, making it a real heavyweight in the solar system. It is believed that the planets in the solar system formed from the same hydrogen-helium cloud from which the sun was created. But here's the catch: The Galileo probe, which looked at Jupiter in the 1990s and 2000s, found a different abundance of heavy elements in Jupiter than in the sun." "One theory (proposed at the time by Galileo scientists) is that Jupiter's heavy elements come from the numerous comets, asteroids and other small bodies that it has pulled in and "consumed" when they get too close. But scientists aren't quite sure. Alternatively, a newer study based on Juno data suggests Jupiter may have formed four times farther away from the sun than the gas giant's orbit, which may explain the strange abundance."

"2. WHAT IS THE GLOBAL ABUNDANCE OF WATER IN JUPITER?"

"Water is key to understanding how Jupiter was formed. Water ice hitchhiking on early comets or asteroids brought heavier elements to Jupiter besides the original hydrogen and helium floating around in the solar system, according to the Southwest Research Institute(opens in new tab) A surprising recent finding is just how persistent water can be after a comet crashes into Jupiter. A famous comet called Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke up into pieces before peppering the planet in July 1994. About 20 years later, the Herschel Space Observatory detected an abundance of water in Jupiter's stratosphere that came from Shoemaker-Levy 9 (which was clear because most of the water vapor was around the impact sites). At least one Juno study found a surprising amount of water in Jupiter compared to what models suggested..."

"10. HOW DO GAS GIANTS USUALLY FORM AND EVOLVE?"

"While each planet is unique, what we are finding on Jupiter may be representative of other planets inside and outside of our solar system, especially bigger ones. Scientists are currently cataloging a range of incredible worlds, many of which are a few times larger than Jupiter and which have a new tool to look at them: the James Webb Space Telescope."

Some of these 10 are tied up with the origin of Jupiter and the MMSN used to describe the origin of our solar system. Here is a report from 1977 that I use as a baseline to compare with more modern simulations and reports.

The Distribution of Mass in the Planetary System and Solar Nebula, The Distribution of Mass in the Planetary System and Solar Nebula - NASA/ADS (harvard.edu) September 1977.

1977Ap&SS..51..153W (harvard.edu), this 6-page report shows how much mass is used in the MMSN to explain the origin of Jupiter and our solar system. Some 600-12,000 earth masses used for Jupiter. What happens in more recent computer simulation reports here? It appears that much juggling of initial mass values and chemistry estimates are always underway to show how Jupiter and our solar system evolved from the solar nebula and postulated protoplanetary disc. The list of 10 in this article indicates there are problems with the entire solar nebula model currently used to explain the origin of Jupiter. In our solar system we do not find hot jupiters or very large exoplanets buzzing around the Sun in the region 3 au or closer. I enjoyed reading this report and list of 10

 

[rod]

Concerning the first item of the list of 10 in the report, I note this Feb-2020 report on Jupiter's heavy element abundance in the MMSN.


Jupiter's heavy-element enrichment expected from formation models, https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020A&A...634A..31V/abstract

Reference paper, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1911.12767.pdf, 18-pages, 02-Dec-2019.

The paper reports, "The exact formation process of Jupiter is not fully constrained and it is unknown whether the early stages of the planet’s formation are dominated by pebble accretion, planetesimal accretion, or both, as recently suggested by A18. In the hybrid formation scenario of A18, there are three formations stages:”..Therefore, if we assume that Jupiter consists of 20-40 M⊕ of heavy elements as suggested by standard structure models, it implies that after attaining the initial core (∼5-15 M⊕), Jupiter spent most of its time between ∼1-10 au (being 1 and 10 au unlikely locations). Formation locations ranging between a = 3 and 5 au provide a very good match with Jupiter’s current bulk metallicity and with the meteoritic constraints of K17; for a wide range of the assumed Σ1, ranging from two to ten times the MMSN. For Σ1 corresponding to one MMSN, the metallicity of the forming Jupiter is too low and the meteoritic constraints cannot be matched. This suggests that in our scenario, Jupiter’s formation requires a "minimum planetesimal disk" corresponding to at least two times the MMSN..."

 

[billslugg]

" About 20 years later, the Herschel Space Observatory detected an abundance of water in Jupiter's stratosphere that came from Shoemaker-Levy 9 (which was clear because most of the water vapor was around the impact sites)."

I find it hard to believe that after 20 years, the water from the comet impact was not mixed better. Don't all the different bands shift around at different rates? How can we fix a longitude on a planet with no solid surface?

 

[rod]

" About 20 years later, the Herschel Space Observatory detected an abundance of water in Jupiter's stratosphere that came from Shoemaker-Levy 9 (which was clear because most of the water vapor was around the impact sites)."

I find it hard to believe that after 20 years, the water from the comet impact was not mixed better. Don't all the different bands shift around at different rates? How can we fix a longitude on a planet with no solid surface?

Follow that Great Red Spot, I did some tonight

 

[rod]

billslugg, Jupiter has a coordinate system used, Juno used a special type. Wikipedia has reports on planet coordinate systems used in our solar system, especially for Mars, Venus, and Mercury. The Sun has a solar coordinate system too for those who do solar observations and record sunspot locations. The Moon has a coordinate system too. You can use Virtual Moon Atlas and apply grid views along with other lat-long lines. Your question is a good one, the Sun has no solid surface, but the solar coordinate system is used. There is much info on the coordinate systems, I am no expert. I enjoy using them at times with my telescope views. Tonight, was a good example on the Moon, Jupiter Great Red Spot view, and Mars with Syrtis Major area. See report on the First Quarter Moon for this evening by space.com. https://forums.space.com/threads/se...join-jupiter-in-the-sky-tonight-dec-29.59381/

 

[billslugg]

I read there are three coordinate systems used on Jupiter. One for equatorial latitudes, one just above and below that. A third is based on the magnetic field.