Jupiter seemed to have devoured the entire planet billions of years ago

BRATISLAVA. Traces of gigantic collisions are omnipresent in the solar system. The Moon was formed, Venus turned in the opposite direction and Uranus turned to the side.

The old impact probably also affected the planet Jupiter.

When the gas branch appeared, it engulfed the germ of another planet, according to a study by the scientific journal Nature. A huge collision could explain the strange kernel of Jupiter.

Core diluted with gases

Astronomers have long thought that the nucleus of the largest planet in the solar system was small and had a hard surface around which gas had accumulated.

The core of Jupiter should have been clearly separated from the other layers. But Juno's observations suggest something else.

The Jupiter nucleus appears to be a rather dilute mass, in which hydrogen and helium are mixed in addition to the rocks. This would mean that there would be no clear boundary between the core and the next layer.

In addition, in some places, the core may extend to half the radius of the gas giant. Jupiter apparently did not always have such a strange core.

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According to a new study, it would have been affected 4.5 billion years ago by the germ of another planet, ten times more massive than the Earth.

Scientists created simulations that the Jupiter core would break after the frontal collision. Gradually, however, began to associate again with the material that remained after the embryo of the second planet.

The gaseous shell has also penetrated into the core until its current mixed form.

The core would last until today

The simulations also showed that the rest of the collision would persist on the planet until now, explaining Juno's new data.

Similar colossal collisions in early solar systems were not exceptional.

The core of Mercury, for example, is exceptionally large and very rich in iron.

An explanation could also be a collision with the germ of the planet at the beginning of the history of the system, which destroyed much of the upper crust of Mercury.

DOI: 10.1038 / s41586-019-1470-2