Heterogeneity

Jupiter’s metallicity provides a clue to its heterogeneity

(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of astronomers has found that Jupiter’s gaseous shell does not have a uniform distribution. The inner part contains more metals than the outer, with a total of 11 to 30 Earth masses, which is 3-9% of the total mass of Jupiter. This is high enough metallicity to conclude that kilometer-sized bodies – planetesimals – must have played a role in Jupiter’s formation. When NASA‘s…