Thursday 26 January 2012

Is Jupiter just a super earth with hydrogen atmosphere?


Does it originate from super earth with excessive collection of
hydrogen?




Basically no, and this is why:



enter image description here
Source from the water article linked below.



Jupiter likely formed outside the frost-line, so it never had a rocky or even a molten magma surface. It formed with much too high a percentage of ices, which, under pressure, became hot gas and perhaps, at one time, a very deep ocean around the whole planet.



As Rob Jeffries said, the formation of Jupiter isn't well understood, so there's some uncertainty there, but I don't see how a planet that forms with as much water, CO2, NH3 and other gases as Jupiter did could ever form what we would consider a solid surface. It's large size and heat of formation probably kept it highly gaseous during it's entire formation. Perhaps it was once a water world of sorts, but my guess is it always resembled a gas giant once it was recognizable as a planet.



The Earth is about 0.02% water (some websites say 0.05% but whichever percentage, the Earth is still almost entirely Rocky Mantle & Metallic core. I don't think a planet that forms outside the frost line would ever become Earth like or a super-earth.



Inside the frost line, A super earth could in time become a gas giant, but outside, I don't think so.



That said, Jupiter might well have an earth like ratio of elements at it's core, but I don't believe that means it was ever a super-earth.

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