# What's inside of Jupiter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423 "2006-04-12T19:46:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/21 "2006-04-13T04:52:22Z")
> [@drewbert](#): > > Nougat. That’s Mars ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/22 "2006-04-13T08:35:24Z")
> [@](#): > > What’s inside of Jupiter? Jimmy Hoffa… ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/23 "2006-04-13T09:33:42Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Is that just theoretical? Has any probe ever been sent down into Jupiter’s atmosphere? From the [wiki article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter#Galileo_mission) article on Jupiter; > [@](#): > > An atmospheric probe was released from the spacecraft in July, 1995. The probe entered the planet’s atmosphere in December 7, 1995. It parachuted through 150 km of the atmosphere, collecting data for 57.6 minutes, before being crushed by the extreme pressure to which it was subjected. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/24 "2006-04-13T11:46:18Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Still – if it has a “rocky core,” then it must, at some point, have a surface, something you could stand on (gravity permitting) and plant a flag. Right? Or am I missing something? you’d be dealing with sufficient pressure at that point to probably destroy any flagpole we could make. Also, there might not be a very clear dividing line between the rock core and the soup just above it… (chunks of fairly large rock floating in a hydrogen-methane liquid mixture, all at high pressure??) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/25 "2006-04-13T12:17:08Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > What’s inside of Jupiter? Drops. And if you get them in your hair… …they’re just murder to shampoo out. 😛😉😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/26 "2006-04-13T12:30:49Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > Dunno, but it would really piss off De Beers. Only if someone figures out a way to conduct mining operations there, which, given the pressures . . . ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/27 "2006-04-13T12:38:43Z")
A large supply of comets, carbohydrates that will condense into a suger-like coating on plants in the Middle East, and assorted vermin capable of surviving an interplanetary flight, and then be viable on Earth. Velikovsky told me, and he was right about the temperature of Venus, right? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/28 "2006-04-13T12:39:53Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > Dunno, but it would really piss off De Beers. [Homer]Mmmm… De Beers…[/Homer] ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/29 "2006-04-13T12:52:19Z")
I would really like to have a jar of liquid hydrogen. And threaten people with it. Because I could. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/30 "2006-04-13T15:17:36Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Since the question has already been answered: > > Penguins. Giant hairy penguins with red eyes and TEEF LIKE THIS (demonstrates). No, no, no. That’s the composition of the 70% of the brain that we _don’t_ use. Juputer is a vast sphere of gas and debris orbiting Bill O’reilly. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/31 "2006-04-13T20:00:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Is that just theoretical? Has any probe ever been sent down into Jupiter’s atmosphere? Yes to both. We’ve probed the outer layers, but no probe can survive down to the really interesting parts, and we can only just barely approximate the kind of pressures found in the core in laboratory experiments, and even then only for a very small fraction of a second. So there’s still plenty of room for speculation on the details of Jupiter’s core. Also note that under extreme conditions, the lines between “solid”, “liquid”, and “gas” can be rather blurry, meaning that even if the very center is definitely solid (and as I said before, it really isn’t definite), that still wouldn’t necessarily mean that there’s a well-defined surface. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/32 "2006-04-13T22:53:36Z")
I don’t think I’ve seen a post with so many useles “jokes” in it as this one. Do those of you making “jokes” here have anything to contribute? Because I see some good, helpful answers, and a bunch of useless, unhelpful posts which are wasting space. Are you here just to see your names in print? There’s a forum for that, MPSIMS. I thought I was here to learn about what’s inside Jupiter, rather than what you think is funny. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/33 "2006-04-13T23:41:00Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > The only place I’ve ever seen it proposed was in the novel _2061_ and I don’t remember seeing it anywhere else. Not to be picky, but the diamond inside Jupiter first appears in Clarke’s _2010_. Dave Bowman as The Starchild descends through Jupiter, finding primitive lifeforms living in the atmosphere, then passing through the funky hydrogen layers and eventually finding at the core, if I remember the passage correctly… > [@Arthur C. Clarke](#): > > …a diamond as big as the Earth. After Jupiter gets monolithed at the end of _2010_, chunks of the diamond are blown out into orbit, and one particular chunk that landed on Europa plays a major role in _2061_. In epilogue of _2061_ the diamonds in orbit around Jupiter are eventually harvested and used to create space elevators, among other useful things. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/34 "2006-04-14T00:51:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Jupiter is composed of a relatively small rocky core, surrounded by metallic hydrogen, surrounded by liquid hydrogen, which is surrounded by gaseous hydrogen. There is no clear boundary or surface between these different phases of hydrogen; the conditions blend smoothly from gas to liquid as one descends. Hmmm, isn´t metallic hydrogen just a theory?, I mean, it hasn´t been ever observed, and it´s just an hypothesis of the behaviour of hydrogen at extremely high pressures. Am I right? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/35 "2006-04-14T01:44:52Z")
> [@Doobieous](#): > > I don’t think I’ve seen a post with so many useles “jokes” in it as this one. I just figured out what’s really inside Jupiter! Upite. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/36 "2006-04-14T06:11:16Z")
> [@Doobieous](#): > > Are you here just to see your names in print? _Print?!_ ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/37 "2006-04-14T07:35:32Z")
> [@Doobieous](#): > > Are you here just to see your names in print? _Names?!_ Oh, yes, names. > [@Ale](#): > > Hmmm, isn´t metallic hydrogen just a theory?, I mean, it hasn´t been ever observed, and it´s just an hypothesis of the behaviour of hydrogen at extremely high pressures. Am I right? An interesting subject. Not all the votes are in yet: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic\_hydrogen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen) I had to fight the temptation to change “The researchers used a 1960s-era light gas gun…” to _“The researchers used a 1960s-style light gas gun, for 20 minutes…”_ ---
**Author:** ![RunSilent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@RunSilent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RunSilent)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/38 "2006-04-14T11:46:38Z")
Blinky the Clown ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/39 "2006-04-14T12:12:36Z")
> [@Doobieous](#): > > I don’t think I’ve seen a post with so many useles “jokes” in it as this one. Do those of you making “jokes” here have anything to contribute? Because I see some good, helpful answers, and a bunch of useless, unhelpful posts which are wasting space. Are you here just to see your names in print? There’s a forum for that, MPSIMS. I thought I was here to learn about what’s inside Jupiter, rather than what you think is funny. AFAIAC, the jokes are no less helpful than the incredibly poorly referenced (though not by its own shoddy standards) Wikipedia article that seems to be so popular in this same thread. A better general purpose page would be [the Jupiter page at NinePlanets](http://www.nineplanets.org/jupiter.html), one of the most respected astronomy references on the web: > [@](#): > > Our knowledge of the interior of Jupiter (and the other gas planets) is highly indirect and likely to remain so for some time. (The data from Galileo’s atmospheric probe goes down only about 150 km below the cloud tops.) > > Jupiter probably has a core of rocky material amounting to something like 10 to 15 Earth-masses. > > Above the core lies the main bulk of the planet in the form of liquid metallic hydrogen. This exotic form of the most common of elements is possible only at pressures exceeding 4 million bars, as is the case in the interior of Jupiter (and Saturn). Liquid metallic hydrogen consists of ionized protons and electrons (like the interior of the Sun but at a far lower temperature). At the temperature and pressure of Jupiter’s interior hydrogen is a liquid, not a gas. It is an electrical conductor and the source of Jupiter’s magnetic field. This layer probably also contains some helium and traces of various “ices”. > > The outermost layer is composed primarily of ordinary molecular hydrogen and helium which is liquid in the interior and gaseous further out. The atmosphere we see is just the very top of this deep layer. Water, carbon dioxide, methane and other simple molecules are also present in tiny amounts. > > Recent experiments have shown that hydrogen does not change phase suddenly. Therefore the interiors of the jovian planets probably have indistinct boundaries between their various interior layers. Or, since they are the folks that found out about most of this stuff, NASA/JPL’s [Jupiter page](http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jupiter), as well as **Bytegeist** ’s academic sources in post #8. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423/40 "2006-04-14T13:38:43Z")
Strawberry jam.[li](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cube) That explains the Great Red Spot.[/li] Cecil started the tradition of inserting jokes amidst the science, shall not his acolytes pay homage? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-inside-of-jupiter/352423.md?page=3)