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Author: Raymond Strom |
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The following partial report on the Jupiter probe leaves a lot of questions. For example: If the solar system is as old as it is, then there should be a more significant differential between the hydrogen/helium ratio for the sun, than for Jupiter. As it it appears, they try to explain that both the sun and Jupiter retain their "fossil" ratios.
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Subject: Galileo Scientists Report Changing Findings about Jupiter
Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA
(Phone: 415/604-4968)
GALILEO SCIENTISTS REPORT CHANGING FINDINGS ABOUT JUPITER
Scientists continuing to analyze information returned by the Galileo atmospheric probe that plunged into Jupiter last December report more surprises about the giant gas planet.
Most significantly, the ratio of the elements that make up 99 percent of the Jovian atmosphere -- helium and hydrogen -- now closely matches that found in the Sun, suggesting that Jupiter's bulk composition has not changed since the planet formed several billion years ago. Estimated amounts of key heavy elements such as carbon and sulfur have increased, but minimal organic compounds were detected, and estimates for Jupiter's wind speeds have climbed still higher.
The ratio of helium to hydrogen by mass is key to developing theories of planetary evolution. In the Sun, this value is about 25 percent. During a January 1996 press conference, Galileo probe scientists estimated that this number for Jupiter was 14 percent. More comprehensive analysis of results from the probe's helium abundance detector has raised this estimate for Jupiter to 24 percent.
"This increase implies that the amount of helium in the Jovian atmosphere is close to the original amount that Jupiter gathered as it formed from the primitive solar nebula that spawned the planets," according to Galileo probe project scientist Dr. Richard Young of NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA.
"The revised helium abundance also indicates that gravitational settling of helium toward the interior of Jupiter has not occurred nearly as fast as it apparently has on Saturn, where the approximate helium-to-hydrogen ratio is just six percent," said Young.
"This then confirms that Jupiter is much hotter in its interior than its neighbor Saturn, the next largest planet in the Solar System. It also may force scientists to revise their projections for the size of the rocky core believed to exist deep in the center of Jupiter," he said.
The new estimate of the helium-to-hydrogen ratio on Jupiter is supported by analysis of complementary data from the Galileo probe's neutral mass spectrometer.
These new helium results are raising related estimates for the abundances of other key compounds, such as methane. Several heavy elements, including carbon, nitrogen and sulfur, are significantly greater in abundance on Jupiter than in the Sun. "This implies that the influx of meteorites and other small bodies into Jupiter over the eons since its formation has played an important role in how Jupiter has evolved," said Young.
However, minimal organic compounds were detected, indicating that such complex combinations of carbon and hydrogen are rare on Jupiter and that the chances of finding biological activity on Jupiter similar to that found on Earth are extremely remote.
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