{"id":450666,"date":"2026-02-03T07:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/450666\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T07:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:00:12","slug":"theres-something-fascinating-hiding-under-jupiters-clouds-scientists-find","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/450666\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s Something Fascinating Hiding Under Jupiter\u2019s Clouds, Scientists Find"},"content":{"rendered":"

The enormous storms of impenetrable clouds covering Jupiter\u2019s surface make it nearly impossible for us to get a glimpse of what lies below. Any spacecraft attempting to get a closer look would be vaporized, melted, or crushed if it attempted to sail through. NASA\u2019s Galileo spacecraft, for instance, went dark almost immediately when it intentionally plunged<\/a> into Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere back in 2003.<\/p>\n

While Jupiter \u2014 a giant ball of swirling gases and liquids \u2014 isn\u2019t believed to have a true surface, scientists have been trying to get a better sense of its layers. Now, using data from NASA\u2019s Juno and Galileo missions, a team of scientists at the space agency\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Chicago have created a highly detailed computational model of Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

And as detailed in a new paper<\/a>, published in The Planetary Science Journal last month, they found something surprising down there: Jupiter appears to contain one-and-a-half times as much oxygen as the Sun \u2014 far more than previous estimates, which suggested it was only a third as much oxygen.<\/p>\n

The findings also support the prevailing theory that Jupiter formed by accreting icy material billions of years ago near or past the \u201cfrost line,\u201d as Space.com points out<\/a>, meaning the distance from the Sun where temperatures are low enough for ammonia, methane, and water ice to form. (Whether the planet formed in its current orbit or much further away from the Sun before migrating to its current position over billions of years remains a topic of debate.)<\/p>\n

Much of the oxygen is tied up in water as well, which changes its behavior drastically depending on temperature, further complicating our efforts to map out Jupiter\u2019s layers.<\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 computational model takes into account both the chemical reactions taking place \u2014 from extremely hot metal molecules deep inside the core and much cooler regions in its atmosphere \u2014 and the movement of gases, clouds and droplets.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need both,\u201d said lead author and UChicago postdoctoral researcher Jeehyun Yang in a statement. \u201cChemistry is important but doesn\u2019t include water droplets or cloud behavior. Hydrodynamics alone simplifies the chemistry too much. So, it\u2019s important to bring them together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their model suggests that gases move far more slowly through Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere than previously thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur model suggests the diffusion would have to be 35 to 40 times slower compared to what the standard assumption has been,\u201d Yang explained. \u201cInstead of moving through an atmospheric layer in hours, a single molecule might take several weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only one small part of a much larger mystery surrounding our solar system\u2019s largest planet \u2014 and its more-than-intriguing collection<\/a> of moons. The angry gas giant of swirling gases continues to baffle even top scientists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really shows how much we still have to learn about planets, even in our own solar system,\u201d Yang said.<\/p>\n

More on Jupiter\u2019s moons: NASA Says Europa Is Covered by a Thick Icy Shell<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The enormous storms of impenetrable clouds covering Jupiter\u2019s surface make it nearly impossible for us to get a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,185468,185469,17753,10322,185467,66,306],"class_list":["post-450666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-computational-model","tag-galileo-spacecraft","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-jupiter","tag-jupiters-atmosphere","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}