Posted on Nov 19, 2021 in Astronomy, Science
Radio signals from two NASA probes, Cassini at Saturn (above) and Juno at Jupiter, allowed researchers to pierce the swirling clouds that hide the deep interiors of Jupiter and Saturn, where crushing pressure transforms matter into states unknown on Earth –“the two planets are more complex than we thought,” said Ravit Helled, a planetary scientist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. “Giant planets are not simple balls of hydrogen and helium.”
Ka Band Radio Signals from Deep Inside the Gas Giants
The effort, writes Paul Voosen in Science, led by Luciano less of Sapienza University in Rome, turned the radio signals into probes of gravitational variations that originate deep inside these gas giants. The results were published in Nature for Jupiter and in Science for Saturn.
In the 1980s, less helped pioneer a radio instrument for Cassini that delivered an exceptionally clear signal because it worked in the Ka band, which is relatively free of noise from interplanetary plasma. By monitoring fluctuations in the radio signal, the team planned to search for gravitational waves from the cosmos and test general relativity during the spacecraft’s journey to Saturn, which began in 1997 as well as from a similar device on the Juno Mission to Jupiter, which launched in 2011.
less and colleagues used radio fluctuations to map the shape of gravity fields at both planets, allowing them to infer the density and movements of material deep inside.
Mystery of Jupiter’s Metallic Oceans and Enormous Magnetic Field
Probing the Roots of the Powerful Winds
One goal, reports Science, “was to probe the roots of the powerful winds that whip clouds on the gas giants into distinct horizontal bands. Scientists assumed the winds would either be shallow, like winds on Earth, or very deep, penetrating tens of thousands of kilometers into the planets, where extreme pressure is expected to rip the electrons from hydrogen, turning it into a metal-like conductor.”
Jupiter a Puzzle
The study’s results for Jupiter were a puzzle: The 500-kilometer-per-hour winds aren’t shallow, but they reach just 3000 kilometers into the planet, some 4% of its radius. Saturn then presented a different mystery: Despite its smaller volume, its surface winds, which top out at 1800 kilometers per hour, go three times deeper, to at least 9000 kilometers. “Everybody was caught by surprise,” less says.
Deep Magnetic Fields Hold the Clue
Scientists think the explanation for both findings lies in the planets’ deep magnetic fields. At pressures of about 100,000 times that of Earth’s atmosphere—well short of those that create metallic hydrogen—hydrogen partially ionizes, turning it into a semiconductor. That allows the magnetic field to control the movement of the material, preventing it from crossing the field lines.
“The magnetic field freezes the flow,” and the planet becomes rigid, says Yohai Kaspi, a planetary scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, who worked with Iess. Jupiter has three times Saturn’s mass, which causes a far more rapid increase in atmospheric pressure—about three times faster. “It’s basically the same result,” says Kaspi, but the rigidity sets in at a shallower depth.
Only Faint Clues About Greater Depths
The Juno and Cassini data yield only faint clues about greater depths. Scientists once believed the gas giants formed much like Earth, building up a rocky core before vacuuming gas from the protoplanetary disc. Such a stately process would have likely led to distinct layers, including a discrete core enriched in heavier elements.
But Juno’s measurements, interpreted through models, suggested Jupiter’s core has only a fuzzy boundary, its heavy elements tapering off for up to half its radius. This suggests that rather than forming a rocky core and then adding gas, Jupiter might have taken shape from vaporized rock and gas right from the start, says Nadine Nettelmann, a planetary scientist at the University of Rostock in Germany.
Dark Side of Saturn’s Gravity
The picture is still murkier for Saturn. Cassini data hint that its core could have a mass of some 15 to 18 times that of Earth, with a higher concentration of heavy elements than Jupiter’s, which could suggest a clearer boundary.
But that interpretation is tentative, says David Stevenson, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a co-investigator on Juno. What’s more, Cassini was tugged by something deep within Saturn that could not be explained by the winds, less says. “We call it the dark side of Saturn’s gravity.”
“The most likely explanation for this additional gravity is normal modes: Oscillations of Saturn, essentially long wavelength sound waves, not unlike those we see on the Sun or Earth,” Stevenson wrote in an email to The Daily Galaxy.
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“The Great Red Spot on a Planetary Scale”
Whatever is causing this tug, Stevenson adds, it’s not found on Jupiter. “It is a major result. I don’t think we understand it yet.”
“We don’t know yet what exactly causes this, but I suspect these longitudinal variations in the gravity field are due to deep storms or internal convection,” geophysicist Yohai Kaspi at the Weizmann Institute of Science wrote in an email to The Daily Galaxy. “These variations are somewhat similar to the variations that were recently detected on Jupiter due to the Great Red Spot (recent paper by Parisi et al), but on a planetary scale.”
“There’s not going to be a better measurement anytime soon,” says Chris Mankovich, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz of the Cassini mission, which ended with the “Grand Finale”, culminating with the probe’s fiery and deliberate destruction in Saturn’s atmosphere —a well thought out experiment to get data by crashing the satellite into the planet.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot –“Could It Be a Way Station on the Long Road to Life?”
Saturn Vibrates –Cause Unknown
Although the rings complicated the gravity measurements, they also offer an opportunity. For some unknown reason—perhaps its winds, perhaps the pull of its many moons—Saturn vibrates. The gravitational influence of those oscillations minutely warps the shape of its rings into a pattern like the spiraling arms of a galaxy. The result is a visible record of the vibrations, like the trace on a seismograph, which scientists can decipher to plumb the planet. Mankovich says it’s clear that some of these vibrations reach the deep interior, and he has already used “ring seismology” to estimate how fast Saturn’s interior rotates.
Cassini Mission: Saturn’s Rings May Not Have Existed During Era of T Rex
Rings are Less than 10-million Years Old
Cassini’s “last gift” was data from the spacecraft’s final orbits that enabled Iess’s team to show the rings are low in mass, which means they must be young, as little as 10 million years old—otherwise, reports Voosen, encroaching interplanetary soot would have darkened the gas giant’s brilliant rings. They continue to rain material onto Saturn, the Cassini team has found, which could one day lead to their demise.
Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research via Yohai Kaspi, David Stevenson, Nature and Science
Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google Scholar, Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”