Scientists are finding that the inside of Jupiter is just as interesting as the part of the planet’s atmosphere that we can see.
At the center of the planet is a liquid mixture of the elements hydrogen and helium. Scientists say large atmospheric jet streams and unusual gravitational qualities also exist.
Scientists have been closely studying information sent back to Earth from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. It has been orbiting the solar system’s largest planet since 2016.
Juno is providing researchers with what they called a new understanding of Jupiter’s structure.
Until now, scientists have had little information about what is below Jupiter’s thick red, brown, yellow and white clouds.
“Juno is designed to look beneath these clouds,” said Yohai Kaspi. He is a planetary science professor with the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Kaspi led part of the research using Juno’s new measurements of Jupiter’s gravity.
Luciano Iess is an aerospace engineering professor at Sapienza University of Rome. He also led part of the research.
“On Jupiter, a gaseous planet without a solid surface, we can only gather information from orbit,” he said.
Jupiter is called a gas giant planet. Unlike Earth and Mars which are rocky planets, Jupiter is about 99 percent hydrogen and helium. Information sent by Juno showed that deeper under the surface, Jupiter’s gas turns into a hot, dense metallic liquid.
The scientists said Jupiter’s jet streams form stripes around the planet moving about 3,000 km below the cloud tops. Deep inside, the planet is made of a liquid hydrogen and helium mixture that turns as if it were a solid body.WWW.VOA-STORY.COM.
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Words in This Story
jet stream – n. a strong current of fast winds high above the Earth’s surface
solar system – n. our sun and the planets that move around it
giant – n. a thing that is very large, powerful,
ionize – v. to make an atom or group of atoms that has a positive or negative electric charge from losing or gaining one or more electrons
symmetry – n. the quality of something that has two sides or halves that are the same or very close in size, shape, and position
hemisphere – n. half of the Earth
equator – n. an imaginary circle around the middle of the Earth