I mean, Jupiter can’t be solid at center and have huge a layer of gases on top?
In: 5
It is solid at the center, you couldn’t fly straight through it.
We say it’s a “gas giant” because nearly all of the material it’s made of is chemicals you’d think of as a gas. It’s almost entirely hydrogen and helium.
It probably does have a rock/metal core in there somewhere, but more importantly under that much pressure the hydrogen gas is compressed into a liquid metal form once you get down in there far enough.
We know it’s mostly made of these lighter elements because it’s gigantic, but much lighter than you’d expect if it was actually made of rock and metal like Earth.
Saturn is so gaseous it would float in water.
Latest Answers