What's really inside a Gas Giant Planet?

[blinx]

Does anyone know what's inside those giant planets? what's it like inside them? No one has yet taken pictures of what's inside them except for Venus and Mars and the surface of Mercury which are not Gas Giants.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Welcome to Space.com.<br />Unfortunately your question is rather incoherent.<br /><br />What is inside the gas or ice giants has nothing to do with the exposed mantle/surface of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.<br /><br />No image can be taken of the cores of the Giant planets, since they are shrouded in thick and opaque atmospheres/ice layers. <br />We know there are some Iron/rock cores within them from the gravitation they exert. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[sponge]

Would be nice to see an image, 1000km underneath the cloud deck, im not sure we would have anything than could handle that at the moment haha <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em><u>SPONGE</u></em></p> </div>

 

[pyoko]

Inside a really large gas giant is a really large diamond the size of Nebraska. (I always wanted to say that, sorry). Jokes aside, that was one of the theories. Carbon under huge pressures and such. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[silylene old]

Degenerate matter, primarily originally hydrogen, is at the core of Jupiter and Saturn. <br /><br />At extremely high external pressures and density, constituent particles are forced close enough together that they are not clearly separated by position, and thus placed them in different energy levels according to the Pauli exclusion principle. <br /><br />Hydrogen becomes a new form of matter, sometimes called 'metallic hydrogen', where a degenerate ionic lattice of hydride and protons will form. It is conductive, like a metal. I appreciate eburacum's good explanation of metallic hydrogen in the above post.<br /><br />Other elements (metals, He, Si, O) will also become degenerate. It's a different state of matter, completely unlike anything we are conventionally familar with. There is no "silicate core" or "liquid iron core" as such. <br /><br />The atoms exist in excited states as degenerate matter, in which the Pauli degeneracy pressure equals the gravitational pressure. <br /><br />It isn't the kind of matter we are commonly familiar with. The atoms aren't chemically bonded using shared valence shell electrons. <br /><br />And here is a Wiki article saying Jupiter and Saturn cores are degenerate matter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen <br />Metallic hydrogen is a degenerate matter form of hydrogen. <br /><br />And here is another Wiki article about the core of Jupiter being degenrate matter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_star <br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>At low density (planets and the like) the object is held up by electromagnetic forces. These forces constrain electrons to occupy orbitals around nuclei, which give rise to chemical bonds and thus allow stiff objects such as rocks to exist. These objects are so stiff that they do not compress very much when mass is added. A</p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[pyoko]

Welcome to uplink.wikipedia.org<br /><br />(kidding) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[dj13]

Not meant to hijack this thread, but a very related concept might ask; If we attribute Jupiter to been the largest planet without actually knowing the physical dimensions of the solid body, how big is the earth if we measure it the same way?<br /><br />We look at the big planets and what we see is what we measure. For the most part earths atmosphere is clear, and because we are here, we measure the solid ground circumference, not the complete and whole earth which really, should include the atmosphere.

 

[h2ouniverse]

Not really.<br />The "diameter" of gas giants is arbitrarily taken at the "reference" zero altitude, defined as the altitude with a one bar pressure. So it is comparable to definition for Earth (since 1 bar is on ground).<br />The deviation (and the "unfair treatment") is more for Mars, Venus or Titan, which have atmospheres but different ground pressures. But not between Earth and the giants...

 

[3488]

The problem with Mars, Venus & Titan is that they are mostly solid bodies wth <br />actual surfaces. So the bast way is usually either an 'average' level or a datum line,<br />dependant on atmospheric pressure.<br /><br />With Venus, the 1 Bar level is just over 50 kilometres above the lava plains & with Titan, <br />approx 10 kilometres above the plains.<br /> <br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Degenate matter is inside white dwarf only.Gas giant?Never heard of it.

 

[silylene old]

<font color="yellow">Degenate matter is inside white dwarf only.Gas giant?Never heard of it. </font><br /><br />Yes. Degenerate matter is thought to exist in large gas giant planets, in substantial amounts. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[lukman]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p> Degenerate matter, primarily originally hydrogen, is at the core of Jupiter and Saturn. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />It is rocky but nothing near degenerate matter, only neutron star. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[silylene old]

<font color="yellow">It is rocky but nothing near degenerate matter, only neutron star. </font><br /><br />Wrong.<br /><br />Please read the references I cited earlier, or the many scientific articles on this subject, that the gravitational pressure at the core of Jupiter is indeed sufficient to force matter into a compressed degenerate state in which the atoms are forced significantly closer than the Bohr radius. We also had a thread and debate on this exact subject about a year ago if anyone wants to find the link.<br /><br />Degenerate matter is defined as a state of matter in which the atoms exist in higher energy excited degenerate states, in which the Pauli degeneracy pressure equals the gravitational pressure. It isn't the kind of matter we are commonly familiar with. The atoms aren't chemically bonded using shared valence shell electrons.<br /><br />Rocks are formed via covalent chemical bonds between metal atoms, oxygen, etc., plus ionic interactions as necessary to balance charges. 'Rocky cores' are made of rocks, and are a normal state of matter.<br /><br />Degenerate matter doesn't form normal chemical bonds. Hence it is cannot be a rock. Hence the core of Jupiter cannot be 'rocky'.<br /><br />Metallic hydrogen is one form of degenerate matter. Most scientists think that Jupiter's core consists largely of metallic hydrogen.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[nexium]

I suspect that only a few hundred scientists have done an in depth analysis, and that near the center of Jupiter is highly speculative. Do we choose metalic hydrogen because no other element has higher density at 3000 GPa and 36000 degrees K? Is this temperature close or does it depend on the convection, conduction and infrared etc radiation transparency of the many layers between the center and the cloud tops? Have we analyzed the viscosity of these many layers to determine how fast objects of higher density will sink/ooze toward the center? Neil

 

[CalliArcale]

Metallic hydrogen is postulated because it fits the predicted temperature and density. There isn't any way to directly measure the temperature and pressure right now, though. Perhaps some future mission to Jupiter will carry the necessary instrumentation.<br /><br />Metallic hydrogen has been created in labs, albeit very briefly, so some of its properties have been confirmed. It's tough to work with, since of course the enormous pressure cannot be maintained for long. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>