Jupiter is melting, scientists say

When you use logic and present facts people don't understand as much.

reply to post by Vandettas


Oh.... you are the smart one. Thanks so much for sharing your undeniably fantastic and accurate logic in this thread. I hope to grow up and be just like you.

The information you provided in regards to the OP is with merit. Thank you soooo much!

However, the nature of Jupiter's core may not be new at all. It may just be the way Jupiter has worked for the past couple billion years.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


It MAY not be new at all. It MAY have been the way its always been. It MAY. It may not.

3 more years and we will KNOW so much more about Jupiter.

Originally posted by paperface
The sooner some realise Phage is not the oracle the better.

Well when you come up with better explanations maybe you can boot him off his throne, until then, listen and learn

Something scary is going on with Jupiter,too many stories have been coming out now about it.

Not really. If we put more Earthquake sensors out and see a dramatic spike in Earthquakes does that mean the world is going to blowup faster? We are just more flexible these days.

The wax like dripping from its core is not normal,and where does the dripping go to?

What do you mean its not normal? It coul be happening all the time for all we know.

Originally posted by MamaJ

However, the nature of Jupiter's core may not be new at all. It may just be the way Jupiter has worked for the past couple billion years.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

It MAY not be new at all. It MAY have been the way its always been. It MAY. It may not.

..

You're right -- maybe Jupiter's core has changed recently. However, it probably hasn't. It's probably the way Jupiter just "is".

Jupiter's core probably hasn't changed for hundreds of millions -- or probably even a few billion -- years. I think it would be quite the coincidence that Jupiter's core just started changing at the around the exact same time we started studying it. It's much more likely it has been that way a long time.


But the bigger point here is this: you are really misinterpreting what the article in the OP is saying. NOTHING in that article is claiming this is a new development. This new way of looking at Jupiter is NOT based on any new data. The last Jupiter probe ended its mission in 2004, so there is no new data. This is simply a new way of looking at the existing data about Jupiter, and a new way of thinking about the composition of Jupiter's core.

...The whole point of the original scientific paper in which this intermixed nature of Jupiter's core was proposed is to explain other exoplanets, such as Planet CoRoT-20b. Planet CoRoT-20b has a mass that is unexplainable using the old model of Jupiter's core -- a core having a distinct boundary with the layer above it. Under this new model being proposed, Jupiter's core is not distinct, but rather intermixed with the layer above it. This new model being proposed would help explain the mass of planets like CoRoT-20b.

So, you see, the point of this article is not to tell us that Jupiter's composition has suddenly changed. Rather, the point of the article is to tell us that some scientists are taking a new look at how Jupiter is composed.

It's our knowledge of Jupiter's core that may be changing -- it's not Jupiter's core itself that is changing.

Originally posted by MamaJ
3 more years and we will KNOW so much more about Jupiter.

Right. Data from the the Juno probe will help us figure out if the old scientific model of Jupiter's core is correct, or if this new model of an intermixed core is a more correct way of looking at Jupiter -- or maybe even the new data might tell us there is a whole new scientific model to consider.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


I am learning, and maybe I am slow learning in regards to this topic but it is what it is. Im trying to understand.

What I do know is the 2004 expedition into Jupiters atmosphere lasted less than an hour before the mission failed. Am I wrong? If I remember correctly it did not send back any information regarding the core. Or did it?

I understand the Voyagers missions depicted Jupiters core as melted rock and ice? Correct?

I have this page bookmarked. I am going back in my history to see what, if anything, talks about the core.

news.sciencemag.org...

Jupiter is the victim of its own success. Sophisticated new calculations indicate that our solar system's largest planet, which weighs more than twice as much as all of the others put together, has destroyed part of its central core. Ironically, the culprit is the very hydrogen and helium that made Jupiter a gas giant, when the core's gravity attracted these elements as the planet formed. The finding suggests that the most massive extrasolar planets have no cores at all.

Again, I am saying that while I am not promoting any doom at all, Im simply learning and implying that we have a lot left to learn. That is what I want my interpretation to be taken as.

ETA:

or maybe even the new data might tell us there is a whole new scientific model to consider.

Exactly.... and that is why I remain open to new findings and or possibilities.

Originally posted by Phage

The way the article reads it is as if they think the core of Jupiter may be dissolving??

No.

A simulation shows that the core is constantly mixing with outer layers of the planet in a give and take situation. If it is happening it's been happening for a very long time.

edit on 3/22/2012 by Phage because: (no reason given)

Am I understanding Phage to say they are constantly mixing with outer layers?

phys.org...

Conventional planetary formation theory has modeled Jupiter as a set of neat layers with a gassy outer envelope surrounding a rocky core consisting of heavier elements. But increasing evidence has indicated that the insides of gas giants like Jupiter are a messy mixture of elements without strictly defined borders. This new research on a melting Jovian core bolsters a mixing model of gas giant planets and would provide another avenue for heavier elements to flow throughout the planet. "People have been working on the assumption that these planets are layered because it's easier to work on this assumption," said Hugh Wilson, a planetary scientist at the University of California Berkeley and a coauthor of the new research appearing in Physical Review Letters. Read more at: phys.org...

An "assumption" just doesn't cut it with me. We will, or should KNOW more in three years.

No.. That's funny he thought he could determine such a thing when we barley understand the interior of that planet. Last I heard was scientists are still unsure if Jupiter has a solid core or not. Yet there certainly is a lot more going on with Jupiter than NASA will admit...

Originally posted by Logan13
No.. That's funny he thought he could determine such a thing when we barley understand the interior of that planet. Last I heard was scientists are still unsure if Jupiter has a solid core or not. Yet there certainly is a lot more going on with Jupiter than NASA will admit...

But you have to give credit for someone trying to explain the possibilities. Whats wrong with that? It beats someone coming along and saying Jupiter is Nibiru and expect it to ignite with a week leaving a second sun in our sky.