Exploring Jupiter's Red Spot: Gas Planet or Solid Core?

[Quadruple Bypass]

Ive been wondering about this for a while. i read in the newspaper about jupiters new red spot, but anyways they mentioned that it was a gas planet. does this mean that if you were to fly to Jupiter and keep going, eventually you'd go right through it and out the other side? or is it so dense that the gas turns into a solid at the center?

 

[pervect]

The center of Jupiter is probably metallic hydrogen, a form of degenerate matter. See for instance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen

 

[scott1]

Well if you go at the right angle you might.But yes it is expected to be a mettallic hydrogen and there might be a small rocky core.

 

[Quadruple Bypass]

so, if you lit a match on a planet that was made out of flammable gas, it would just disappear? wow that sucks

 

[russ_watters]

Hydrogen requires oxygen to burn and there is very little of that on Jupiter.

Remember, Jupiter was hit by a comet (broken into many fragments) that exploded with an energy greater than all the nuclear weapons on Earth combined, and it is still there.

 

[franznietzsche]

so, if you lit a match on a planet that was made out of flammable gas, it would just disappear? wow that sucks

Stop and think about what you just said.

First consider what 'burning' actually means(A chemical reaction between an oxidizer, of which there would be very little on jupiter, and a reactant, of which there is plenty in the form of hydrogen). Next consider that matter has to be conserved(so it doesn't make sense to talk about anything just 'disappearing').

As russ said:

Hydrogen requires oxygen to burn and there is very little of that on Jupiter.

Remember, Jupiter was hit by a comet (broken into many fragments) that exploded with an energy greater than all the nuclear weapons on Earth combined, and it is still there.

 

[Quadruple Bypass]

ah yes...i didnt know what actual gasses were on jupiter

 

[DaveC426913]

BTW, if you DID fly your spaceship into Jupiter, you would never get anywhere near the metallic core. Pressures climb into the hundreds or even thousands of atmospheres long before that. There is speculation that it is one continuous gradient from gas to liquid to solid.

 

[Arian]

We know there is a solid metalic core because it has a strong,- very very, very strong magnetic field which makes big radiation belts around it.
And you could even get past a few of Jupiter's moons without this radiation zapping you to bits.

 

[Astronuc]

Somewhere I remember seeing a profile of Jupiter's atmosphere, but I can't find the reference. It was based on Galileo descent into Jupiter at the end of the mission.

Meanwhile, here is some information on Jupiter:

Jupiter information
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/ph121/l15.html
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast121/lectures/lec19.html

Jupiter atmosphere profile - based on Galileo measurements
http://wwwa.britannica.com/eb/article-54259

I think there is a better, more official atmosphere profile available from JPL.