# Is Earth a Gas Giant core?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-earth-a-gas-giant-core/919163>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 27, 2020, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-earth-a-gas-giant-core/919163 "2020-08-27T17:27:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-earth-a-gas-giant-core/919163/1 "2020-08-27T17:27:48Z")

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Looking at this YouTube video (FF to time index 3:00) it occurred to me…if that planet may have been a gas giant that had most of it’s hydrogen and helium atmosphere blown away, how possible is it our own rocky planets of the inner solar system are a result of the same process?

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**Author:** ![Guy\_Incognito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guy_incognito/32/3920_2.png) [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-earth-a-gas-giant-core/919163/2 "2020-08-27T17:56:43Z")

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I’m not certain that any of the “solid” planets within the inner part of our solar system are massive enough to have been a core for a gas giant planet. There must be some kind of minimum threshold that must be met in order to form a gas giant. The overall density would probably need to be much greater than any of our wimpy rocky planets I would imagine.

I’ll be curious to see an answer to this myself. It sounds interesting!

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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-earth-a-gas-giant-core/919163/3 "2020-08-27T17:57:19Z")

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Your link is missing, but there is some thought that some of the rocky planets are Gas Giant cores. I don’t believe anyone is suggesting the our 4 inner planets are such though.

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-earth-a-gas-giant-core/919163/4 "2020-08-27T18:16:05Z")

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> [@EnolaStraight](#):
>
> Looking at this YouTube video (FF to time index 3:00) it occurred to me…if that planet may have been a gas giant that had most of it’s hydrogen and helium atmosphere blown away, how possible is it our own rocky planets of the inner solar system are a result of the same process?

What YouTube video? Did you include a link somewhere?

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-earth-a-gas-giant-core/919163/5 "2020-08-28T00:49:42Z")

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Probably this one.

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/oB5WM4VSbu0/maxresdefault.jpg "This Planet Used to Be the Core of a Gas Giant? | SciShow News") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB5WM4VSbu0)

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**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-earth-a-gas-giant-core/919163/6 "2020-08-28T04:50:24Z")

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Yes…sorry.

That’s the one.