Flim Flam question

[GreyWanderer]

I just borrowed Flim Flam from the library. I noticed that in chapter 3, page 35 on one of the lists it says:

Jupiter is a gas mass - Wrong
(translated from the Norwegian version)

I thought Jupiter was a gas planet...

[RichardR]

Originally posted by GreyWanderer
I just borrowed Flim Flam from the library. I noticed that in chapter 3, page 35 on one of the lists it says:

Jupiter is a gas mass - Wrong
(translated from the Norwegian version)

I thought Jupiter was a gas planet... Doesn't say anything like that in my version. :confused:

[Aoidoi]

In my version it's in Chapter 4 page 65:
"Jupiter is a gaseous mass - Wrong"
a later one in the list says:

"Interior of Jupiter is liquid or gaseous - True (liquid)"

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/jupiter/planet_structure.ht

Jupiter's interior composition is primarily that of simple molecules such as hydrogen and helium, which are liquids under the high pressure environments found in the interiors of the outer planets, and not solids.

[GreyWanderer]

Ok, so Jupiter is liquid in the middle and gasous on the outside?

[rwald]

I thought that there was some sort of solid core in the center, if only a small rock? Or maybe at the center, the pressures are such that you have solid helium? I mean, not a single solid to be found? That seems kinda unlikely.

[BillyJoe]

Have a look here (http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/jupiter.html)

Some relevant quotes

"The gas planets do not have solid surfaces",

"Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium (by numbers of atoms, 75/25% by mass) with traces of methane, water, ammonia and "rock".

"Our knowledge of the interior of Jupiter is highly indirect... Jupiter probably has a core of rocky material amounting to something like 10 to 15 Earth-masses."

"Above the core lies the main bulk of the planet in the form of liquid metallic hydrogen. This exotic form of the most common of elements is possible only at pressures exceeding 4 million bars, as is the case in the interior of Jupiter. Liquid metallic hydrogen consists of ionized protons and electrons. At the temperature and pressure of Jupiter's interior hydrogen is a liquid, not a gas."

"The outermost layer is composed primarily of ordinary molecular hydrogen and helium which is liquid in the interior and gaseous further out."


So it's....

(?Rocky core) -> liquid metallic hydrogen -> liquid hydrogen/helium -> gaseous hydrogen/helium

[rwald]

That's basically what I heard (though I wasn't aware of the "liquid metallic hydrogen" area). I also heard somewhere that if Jupiter had 1000 times it real mass when it was originally forming, it would have become a star. Was that true, as well? What about the other gas giants? (They would have required more mass, but would that have been the only difference?)

[BillyJoe]

Originally posted by rwald
I also heard somewhere that if Jupiter had 1000 times it real mass when it was originally forming, it would have become a star. Was that true, as well? Okay, just once more, rwald, after that you can do your own googling :rolleyes:

Jupiter is just about as large in diameter as a gas planet can be. If more material were to be added, it would be compressed by gravity such that the overall radius would increase only slightly. A star can be larger only because of its internal (nuclear) heat source. But Jupiter would have to be at least 80 times more massive to become a star.

[rwald]

Why? It's more fun to make you Google for me. ;)

But seriously, though, if it's annoying you, just say so.

[BillyJoe]

Nah, if I wasn't interested myself I wouldn't have bothered. I'll probably remember about jupiter's four layers long after they discover there are only three!

Cheers,
BillyJoe.

[Phaycops]

Ok, sorry to have such a random, meaningless post, but that's really cool, about the metallic liquid hydrogen. And 4 million bars?! Woah! Who needs religion when there's stuff like this out there?!:D

[xouper]

bump