# What's at the center of Jupiter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 10, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750 "2003-01-10T15:32:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arrowzona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/977dab/32.png) [@Arrowzona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrowzona)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/1 "2003-01-10T15:32:56Z")
I know that Jupiter is called a “gas giant” – a planet made of gas, with a surface of clouded striations and a big red spot. But it has a huge mass, and a massive gravitational pull (I know – they’re the same thing). Can it really be gas all the way through? Wouldn’t it at least be crushed to liquid, of not to solid, by the time you get all the way to the center? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/2 "2003-01-10T15:34:48Z")
Caramel. How it got there is a mystery. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/3 "2003-01-10T15:38:42Z")
Actually, it’s a really big diamond. Didn’t you read Arthur Clarke’s Oddysey series? 😃 Seriously, however, I don’t know. Sounds like a case for the **Bad Astronomer**. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/4 "2003-01-10T15:40:48Z")
My astronomy knowledge is probably out of date, but I do recall reading that it’s believed the center is metallic hydrogen. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/5 "2003-01-10T16:31:37Z")
[http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiter/core.html](http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiter/core.html) > [@](#): > > The extreme pressure and temperature inside Jupiter leads to exotic chemistry. For example, scientists have reason to believe that the inner layers of hydrogen in Jupiter’s atmosphere, under the pressure of the atmosphere above, may have formed into a layer of what is called liquid metallic hydrogen. > [@](#): > > Some scientists theorize that beneath this layer there is no solid mass at the center of Jupiter, but that the unique temperature and pressure conditions sustain a core **whose density is more like liquid or slush**. Jupiter is a giant slushie with atmosphere! ---
**Author:** ![William\_Ashbless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@William\_Ashbless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/William_Ashbless)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/6 "2003-01-10T16:38:01Z")
What’s a little frightening about that analysis, Epimetheus, is when you realize that the slushie at the center is probably many times the radius of Earth. Now that’s a big twinkie. Er, I mean slushie. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/7 "2003-01-10T16:41:29Z")
As **Epimetheus** says, nobody knows for sure. The pressures and temperatures are so high at the center of Jupiter, (or even, heck, if you just go a good fraction of the way down) that you can’t really do laboratory experiments to figure out how materials will behave. The heaviest compoents, rock and metal, will sink to the core. (Again, as **Epi** sez, there’s a metallic hydrogen layer outside the core.) It’s hard to say whether silicates or metals would be solid or liquid at under those conditions. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/8 "2003-01-10T16:52:47Z")
Jupiter - the cosmic pastry. Think that would would fly for a 23rd-century tourist advert? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/9 "2003-01-10T18:05:11Z")
Sombody (Sagan?) speculated that if Jupiter had been just a little more massive, it would have started to undergo thermonuclear chain reaction a long time ago and we’d be living in a binary system. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/10 "2003-01-10T18:07:40Z")
Like Tatooine. w00t. Think there’d be Jawas here? ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/11 "2003-01-10T18:27:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by William\_Ashbless \* > **the slushie at the center is probably many times the radius of Earth.** according to the [Nine Planets](http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/jupiter.html) site the rocky core of Jupiter is > [@](#): > > probably 10-15 times more massive than Earth which at those pressures wouldn’t be all that much bigger than Earth. Re-reading your quote, you’re probably pretty close: several times the _radius_ of Earth wouldn’t be that far off. (After going to all the trouble of looking the cite up, I wasn’t going to delete it just because I realized on preview that you were closer than I’d originally thought :)). > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Attrayant \* > \*\*Sombody (Sagan?) speculated that if Jupiter had been just a little more massive, it would have started to undergo thermonuclear chain reaction a long time ago and we’d be living in a binary system. \*\* The same page I linked to above says: > [@](#): > > (But Jupiter would have to be at least 80 times more massive to become a star.) ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/12 "2003-01-10T20:27:33Z")
How does one get metallic hydrogen? My chemistry is pretty good, but it’s not that good. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/13 "2003-01-10T21:01:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by asterion \* > \*\*How does one get metallic hydrogen? My chemistry is pretty good, but it’s not that good. \*\* First get yourself a gas gun and read [this article](http://www-phys.llnl.gov/H_Div/GG/Nellis.html). ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-at-the-center-of-jupiter/147750/14 "2003-01-10T21:15:57Z")
I guess I could just answer and say that it seems if you want metallic hydrogen you merely need to cool hydriogen to near absolute zero and then apply pressure equal to 1.4 million times that of earth’s pressure at sea level\* and you’ll have it (although the linked article alos mentions a 3,000 Kelvin number…I _think_ they are saying the sample heats up to that when the massive pressure is applied but I’m not sure. [sub]\* – Atmosphereic pressure on earth at sea level is defined as 14.7 pounds per square inch (it can vary but that’s the number i was given in my scuba lessons). So, you need a pressure of roughly 20.5 _million_ pounds per square inch to get your metallic hydrogen.