Object within Jupiter is so strange that it challenges understanding

Jupiter’s core, the largest planet of our solar system, has long been a source of mystery for astronomers: it is so unexpectedly dense and hot that it challenges understanding.

Conventional theories have suggested for years that the gigantic interior of the giant giant was formed following a huge collision with a primitive planet.

A “Giant Impact” Theory suggests that about half of Jupiter’s core originated in the remains of such a planet, explaining what researchers believe to be their strange “diffuse” interior.

In a new study, an international team of scientists has now discovered that the theory may after all not to have the foundationeventually compromising the way we understand Jupiter’s formation.

The results of the study were presented in a recently published magazine Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In the study, the team tried to explain the gradual mixes Jupiter’s hydrogen, for the first time by the Juno da NASA probe. Scientists have a long time discussed As such a structure could have emerged.

The researchers simulate the conditions that would exist during a planetary impact using a supercomputer, and raised the question of whether Jupiter’s “diluted core” It is really the result of a massive collision.

Curiously, none of your giant impact simulationseven under the most extreme circumstances, it resulted in the gradual gas mixtures that currently seem to compose the planet’s core, compromising current impact theories.

Instead, explained the, found that the cloud resulting from rocky material and cold core would be based on different layersnot in a gradual mixture.

The investigation sheds new light – and controversy – about how one of the largest and most extreme structures of our solar system originally came to be.

The authors of the study propose in their article that the Jupiter core gradually graduated As it attracted heavy elements and light over time, “as part of the prolonged formation and evolution of giant planets, rather than through extreme and low -likely giant impacts.”

“It is fascinating to explore as a giant planet as Jupiter would respond to one of the most violent events that a growing planet can experience,” explains Thomas Sandnes, Planetary Scientist at the University of Durham and the main author of the article.

“We see in our simulations that this kind of impact literally shakes the planet to the nucleus – only not in a way that allows to explain The interior of Jupiter we see today, ”he added.

Scientists also found that The other gaseous giant From our system, Saturn, the second largest planet of our system, can also have a similar diluted core.

“The fact that Saturn also has a diluted core reinforces the idea that these structures are not the result of rare impacts and extremely high energy, but gradually form during the long process of growth and planetary evolution, ”says the Portuguese astrophysicist Luis Teodororesearcher at the University of Oslo and co -author of the study.

The same discoveries could even apply to other gaseous giants that orbit distant stars, suggesting that their nuclei also have complex interiors.

“Giant impacts are a fundamental part of the history of many planets, but cannot explain everything! ”, Concludes Jacob Kegerreisresearcher at the Seti Institute and co-author of the study.