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A cosmic frontal collision between Jupiter and a protoplanet 4.5 billion years ago could finally explain the surprising readings made by the NASA Juno satellite. NASA now thinks that this collision with the extremely dense planet can explain the strangely gaseous inner core of Jupiter. The center of Jupiter, consisting of solid rocks and hydrogen, has long puzzled astronomers.
But if NASA's theory is accurate, it could revolutionize our understanding of the violent birth of the solar system.
Astronomers at Rice University and Sun Yat-sen University believe that the strange frontal incidence scenario may explain NASA's previously confusing gravitational readings of the NASA space probe, which suggest that the Jupiter core is less dense and more extensive than expected.
Professor Andrea Isella, astronomer Rice and co-author of the study, said: "It's amazing.
"This suggests that something has happened that has stirred up the kernel, and that's where the giant impact comes in."
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Popular theories about planet formation suggest that Jupiter began as a dense rock or ice planet, which then developed its thick atmosphere from the primordial disk of gas and dust that gave birth to our Sun.
Professor Isella admitted that he was initially skeptical when the lead author of the study, Professor Shang-Fei Liu, suggested for the first time that NASA Juno data could be explained by a cosmic impact that stirred the core of Jupiter.
This frontal collision mixed the dense contents of the Jupiter core with less dense layers above.
Professor Isella added, "It seemed very unlikely to me, like a probability of one in a thousand.
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"But Shang-Fei convinced me, by shear calculation, that it was not so improbable."
The research team performed thousands of computer simulations and discovered that a fast-growing Jupiter may have disrupted the orbits of neighboring embryonic planets.
In each scenario, Liu and his colleagues discovered that Jupiter would have a 40% chance of absorbing a planetary embryo in the first few million years.
The researchers also found that protoplanets may have frequently collided at the beginning of the solar system.
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The study's authors added: "We suggest that collisions were common in the young solar system and that a similar event would also have occurred for Saturn, thus contributing to the structural differences between Jupiter and Saturn."
They also tested the theory that the fragmented Jupiter core was due to weather erosion or the possibility that it still contains base gas.
However, the study concluded that a colossal cosmic collision was the most likely explanation.
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