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Why does Jupiter look like it has a surface – even though it has none? – Sejal, 7 years, Bangalore, India
The Planet Jupiter has no fixed floor – no surface, such as the grass or dirt that you step here on earth. There is nothing to work and no place where you can land a spaceship.
But how can that be? What does it have when Jupiter has no surface? How can it stick together?
Even as a professor of physics, which examines all types of unusual phenomena, I am clear that the concept of a world without a surface is difficult to fathom. But a lot of Jupiter remains a mystery, even if the robot probe from NASA begins its ninth year, circles this strange planet.
First, some facts
Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun, is between Mars and Saturn. It is the largest planet in the solar system that is large enough so that more than 1,000 earths fit inside.
While the four inner planets of the solar system – mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars – consist of solid, rocky material, Jupiter is a gas giant with a composition similar to the sun. It is a stormy, wild turbulent gas ball. Some places on Jupiter have winds of more than 400 miles per hour (approx. 640 kilometers per hour), about three times faster than a hurricane in category 5 on earth.
Looking for solid ground
Start from the top of the earth’s atmosphere, go about 60 miles (approximately 100 kilometers) and the air pressure rises continuously. Ultimately, she hit the surface of the earth, either land or water.
Compare this to Jupiter: Start near the top of its mainly hydrogen and helium atmosphere, and as on Earth the pressure increases the deeper you go. But at Jupiter, the pressure is immense.
If the gas layers over them press down more and more, it is as if it were on the bottom of the ocean – but instead of water they are surrounded by gas. The pressure becomes so intense that the human body would implode; You would be squeezed.
Go down 1,600 kilometers and the hot, dense gas begins to behave strangely. Finally, the gas turns into a form of liquid hydrogen and creates what can be seen as the largest ocean in the solar system, albeit as an ocean without water.
Go another 20,000 miles (approx. 32,000 kilometers), and the hydrogen is more like liquid metal, a material that is recently so exotic and have reproduced the scientists in the laboratory with great difficulty. The atoms in this liquid metallic hydrogen are pressed so tightly that its electrons can go through freely.
Remember that these shift transitions are gradually and not abrupt. The transition from normal hydrogen gas to liquid hydrogen and then to metallic hydrogen takes place slowly and smoothly. At no point there is a sharp limit, solid material or a sharp surface.
Scary to the core
Ultimately, they would reach the core of Jupiter. This is the central region of Jupiter interior and not to be confused with a surface.
Scientists are still discussing the exact nature of the core material. The most preferred model: it is not solid, like rock, but more like a hot, density and possibly metallic mixture of liquid and solid.
The pressure on Jupiter Kern is so immense that it is like 100 million earth atmospheres that press them – or two state buildings of the Empire State on every square of their body.
But pressure would not be your only problem. A spaceship that tries to reach the Jupiter core would melt due to the extreme heat – 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit (20,000 degrees Celsius). This is three times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Jupiter helps the earth
Jupiter is a strange and forbidden place. But if Jupiter were not there, there may not be possible people.
This is because Jupiter acts as a shield for the inner planets of the solar system, including the earth. With its massive gravitational education, Jupiter has changed the orbit of asteroids and comets for billions of years.
Without Jupiter’s intervention, part of this space waste could have plunged into the ground; If you had been a catastrophic collision, this could have been an event on extinction. Just take a look at what happened to the dinosaurs.
Perhaps Jupiter supported our existence, but the planet itself is extremely inhospitable for life – at least life as we know it.
The same applies to a Jupiter moon, Europe, perhaps our best chance to find a life elsewhere in the solar system.
The European Clipper of NASA, a robot probe in October 2024, is to carry out about 50 fly tracks over this moon in order to examine its enormous surfaces.
Could something live in Europe’s water? Scientists will not know for a while. Due to the removal of Jupiter from Earth, the probe will only arrive in April 2030.
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This article will be released from the conversation, a non -profit, independent news organization that brings you facts and trustworthy analyzes to help you understand our complex world. It was written by: Benjamin Roulston, Clarkson University
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Benjamin Roulston does not work for a company or an organization that benefits from this article and have not published any relevant affiliations about their academic appointment.
