As the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter is massive and plays an important role of attracting various objects to itself before they can reach the inner planets, including Earth. It is weird to think about how Jupiter is made primarily of gasses, given how huge it is, but that is the reality.

The Juno mission did confirm that it has a solid core, but it also showed that the core was not as dense as once was assumed. Today, it is known that the core of the planet is dilute, meaning that it is larger than thought, but it isn’t entirely solid either. The area where the gasses end and the solid core begins is not at all clearly defined, with gradual transition zones being present throughout.

Most experts assumed that this unusual core was formed by an extremely large object impacting the planet after it had already formed. It is generally accepted that our moon was formed in this way in the distant past. When a sufficiently large object collided into the Earth, the pieces that broke away formed into the moon.

If that were the case with the formation of the core of Jupiter, the object would have had to be even larger, relatively speaking, than what hit the Earth so long ago. One study suggested that the object would have had to have been made of heavy elements and been somewhere around 10 times more massive than Earth itself.

Dr. Thomas Sandnes of Durham University and his team wanted to prove that this was the case. They used supercomputer modeling to run simulations on what would happen when large collisions took place. They ran these simulations in many different ways with different sized objects, colliding at different angles, different compositions, and more.

Unexpectedly, they could not get any of them to produce a core like the one that has been observed on Jupiter.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, as can be seen in this video that shows some of the various simulation options that were run:

In a statement about the effort, Sandnes said:

“We see in our simulations that this kind of impact literally shakes the planet to its core – just not in the right way to explain the interior of Jupiter that we see today.”

Another issue that they pointed out in their study, which was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is that the type of core that Jupiter has is not unique. In fact, Saturn’s core is quite similar. This means that the method of formation is likely not something that is rare, as would be the case of a massive object colliding with an already largely formed gas giant. Dr. Luis Teodoro of the University of Oslo, who also worked on the study, commented on this, saying:

“The fact that Saturn also has a dilute core strengthens the idea that these structures are not the result of rare, extremely high-energy impacts but instead form gradually during the long process of planetary growth and evolution.”

While their study seems to have ruled out a massive collision as the method by which Jupiter’s core formed, it does little to put forward any alternative options. Other astronomers and researchers will likely have to take up that effort, largely starting from scratch.

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