The Object at the Center of Jupiter Is So Strange That It Defies Comprehension

"The core of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has long been a source of mystery for astronomers: an object so unfathomably dense and hot that it defies comprehension. Conventional theories have suggested for years that the gas giant's behemoth interior was formed following an enormous collision with an early planet. The "giant impact" theory suggests that roughly half of Jupiter's core originated from the remains of such a planet, explaining what researchers believe to be its strange, " fuzzy" interior."

"But now, as detailed in a new paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, an international team has found that the theory may not hold up after all, potentially undermining the way we understand Jupiter's formation. In their research, the scientists attempted to explain Jupiter's gradual blend of hydrogen layers, as first observed by NASA's Juno spacecraft. Researchers have long butted their heads over how such a structure could've come to be."

"By simulating the conditions during a planetary impact using a supercomputer, the researchers posed the question of whether Jupiter's " dilute core" is really the result of a massive collision. Confusingly, none of their giant impact simulations, even under the most extreme circumstances, resulted in the gradual blends of gas that currently seem to make up the planet's core, undermining current impact theories."

Jupiter's interior shows a dilute core with gradual blending of hydrogen and heavier elements as observed by Juno. Supercomputer simulations of giant planetary impacts produced stratified layers of rock and ice rather than gradual blends, even under extreme conditions. The giant-impact hypothesis fails to reproduce the observed diffuse interior structure. The simulation results imply that core material from impacts would settle into distinct layers. An alternative explanation is slow, extended accretion of heavy and light elements during planetary formation and evolution, producing a diluted core without relying on low-likelihood, extreme giant impacts.

Read at Futurism