A new Durham University study has found that a giant impact may not be responsible for the formation of Jupiter’s remarkable “dilute” core, challenging a theory about the planet’s history.
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has a mystery at its heart. Unlike what scientists once expected, its core doesn’t have a sharp boundary but instead gradually blends into the surrounding layers of mostly hydrogen (a structure known as a dilute core).
How this dilute core formed has been a key question among scientists and astronomers ever since NASA’s Juno spacecraft first revealed its existence.
A previous study suggested that a colossal collision with an early planet containing half of Jupiter’s core material could have thoroughly ...
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