Solar system formation |
Solar system formation |
Dec 3 2008, 05:16 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
Here is a recent article in space.com (I tried to link to this a few days ago, but it disappeared from the space.com archives...today it's back) about how Jupiter may have a much bigger core (14-16 Earth masses of rock!) than previously proposed. Previous predictions ranged from a core of 7 Earth masses of rock to no core at all. Juno should help nail down the absolute size of the core, and therefore, whether a rock core was required for the initial accretion. Which came first: gas or rock? And if rock is required to initiate accretion of gas giants... what about stars? -the other Doug (This discussion was originally in the Juno thread but was moved to a separate topic - moderator) -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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Dec 4 2008, 05:43 PM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
While the atomic electron clouds and probability shells will break apart and make a soup at stellar core pressures and temperatures, I think the nuclei themselves remain intact.
The thing I'm not sure of (and echo's Gordan's point above) is if a soup composed of larger nuclei would hinder the fusion of lighter elements. Would a soup of silicon nuclei and deuterium nuclei fuse slower than just a soup of deuterium nuclei alone? Or are there funky catalytic cycles that could make things easier (like a heavier element version of the CNO cycle)? [I'll admit total ignorance here.] -Mike -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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