investigator have propose a potential result to the mystifier that is Jupiter ’s core . Based on data point from NASA ’s Juno mission , the giant planet ’s core is less dense than antecedently thought and quite extended . In the journalNature , the squad suggests that these characteristic were have by a head - on hit with Jupiter and another major planet .
According to their model , the other planet was a fledgling object expected to be about 10 times the mass of Earth : very gravid by our standard , but a minor contribution to a planet that today is 318 times as massive as Earth . In agreement with the thousands of pretending the squad ran , this is the impact scenario that adept reproduces the core we see today .
Jupiter ’s core has between 10 and a few tens of Earth - mass amounts of heavy elements ( anything that it is not H or atomic number 2 ) . According to world-wide formation theories , these should have nail down at the very center of the major planet in the early stages of Jupiter ’s formation . Instead of this compendious nucleus , research worker have find evidence of heavy element region stretch out to nearly half Jupiter ’s radius .
“ This is mystify , ” Rice uranologist and study co - author Andrea Isella sound out in astatement . “ It suggests that something go on that stirred up the meat , and that ’s where the giant wallop come into play . Before wallop , you have a very dense core , surrounded by an atmosphere . The head - on impact spreads things out , diluting the core . ”
Isella admits that he was questioning of the mind when he first get wind it , as he see it a one - in - trillion scenario . Lead author Shang - Fei Liu from Sun Yat - sen University convert him “ by bold figuring ” . Liu and fellow count on that there was at least a 40 percent chance that Jupiter get down a nearby form planet within its first few million years of existence .
This employment will certainly not be the last Christian Bible on the subject of Jupiter ’s particular essence , and with new data constantly being received from Juno , researchers can continue to perfect models and scenarios to explicate its feature .
Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016 . Thanks to its extremely flaky orbit , the spacecraft get closer to the giant planet than ever before ( snapping somepretty great photosas well ) . Its suite of instruments is measure the gravitative and magnetic field of the planet , as well as its atmospheric composition .
