Is Jupiter Eating Its Own Heart?

Jupiter's central core is eroding, but no one knows how fast.

Credit: Voyager 2/NASA/JPL/USGS

There's a core problem around Jupiter, our solar system largest planet. Cientists say that Jupiter is being a victim of his own sucess. 

This gas Giant, which is formed mainly of hydrogen and helium, is suffering an enormous pressure from the planet's gravity which squeezes most of the hydrogen into a metallic fluid that conducts electricity.

The hydrogen and helium which surround a central core, made of iron, rock, and ice weighs roughly 10 times as much as Earth, and is considered a small component in a planet that weighs 318 Earths.

Planetary scientist David Stevenson, (California Institute of Technology), says it’s important to look into this problem because scientists want to understand how Jupiter has changed over time in its core mass.

Calculations will have implications far beyond Jupiter. Many of the planets orbiting other stars are more massive than Jupiter, so their cores are even hotter. "For these planets, core erosion would be faster," says Militzer, which means gas giants several times heavier than Jupiter might be completely coreless, changing the view scientists have long held of these distant worlds.

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