Rice University | 2019 Aug 14
Jupiter’s core may still be reeling from collision 4.5 billion years ago
A colossal, head-on collision between Jupiter and a still-forming planet in the early solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago, could explain surprising readings from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, according to a study this week in the journal Nature.Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Astronomers from Rice University and China’s Sun Yat-sen University say their head-on impact scenario can explain Juno’s previously puzzling gravitational readings, which suggest that Jupiter’s core is less dense and more extended that expected.
“This is puzzling,” said Rice astronomer and study co-author Andrea Isella. “It suggests that something happened that stirred up the core, and that’s where the giant impact comes into play.”
Isella said leading theories of planet formation suggest Jupiter began as a dense, rocky or icy planet that later gathered its thick atmosphere from the primordial disk of gas and dust that birthed our sun.
Isella said he was skeptical when study lead author Shang-Fei Liu first suggested the idea that the data could be explained by a giant impact that stirred Jupiter’s core, mixing the dense contents of its core with less dense layers above. ...
Giant Impact Disrupted Jupiter’s Core
NCCR PlanetS | 2019 Aug 14
The Formation of Jupiter’s Diluted Core by a Giant Impact ~ Shang-Fei Liu et al
- Nature 572(7769):355 (15 Aug 2019) DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1470-2
