- #1
Nakisima
- 20
- 0
Hi guys,
I've had a question nagging at me for a while - When I was at school, my chemistry teacher taught us that the outer electrons of atoms were bound to the attraction of the nucleus, and the more layers of electrons that were added, the weaker the attraction due to electron "shielding" until no more layers could form (ergo, giving us a limited number of elements etc). With the gas giant planets, it is thought that they have relatively small, possibly metallic cores with therefore relatively huge atmospheres. So my question is, how is this possible? I mean, I accept that the force of attraction is gravity rather than opposite charges, but surely the gravitational pull of gaseous substances are weaker, and therefore could not hold the volume of gas together that Jupiter does, for instance.
I've had a question nagging at me for a while - When I was at school, my chemistry teacher taught us that the outer electrons of atoms were bound to the attraction of the nucleus, and the more layers of electrons that were added, the weaker the attraction due to electron "shielding" until no more layers could form (ergo, giving us a limited number of elements etc). With the gas giant planets, it is thought that they have relatively small, possibly metallic cores with therefore relatively huge atmospheres. So my question is, how is this possible? I mean, I accept that the force of attraction is gravity rather than opposite charges, but surely the gravitational pull of gaseous substances are weaker, and therefore could not hold the volume of gas together that Jupiter does, for instance.
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