It have long been thought that the internal heat of Saturn have been generated by the release of latent heat and friction as helium condensed and rained down trough the atmospheric layers on Saturn. Now scientists at the university of Exeter and the Ecole in Lyon have presented one hypothesis which give one alternative explanation for why the planet are warmer than it is supposed to be.
The press release on this subject from the http://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/newsandevents/news/title_287671_en.html
ADMIN NOTE: Unnecessary quoting removed. Refer UMSF http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=boardrules and recent http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7729&view=findpost&p=203417 reminder.
I have an alternative thesis; the rocky cores of some gas and ice giants have natural fission reactors such as the one that has been discovered on earth, the one on earth was discovered in our planets crust where heterogeneous mixing of elements can occur. Does this occur in the core?
Also I am having trouble reconciling my thesis with the NICE theory, would you find fissionable isotopes in the outer solar system to produce a natural reactor in a planets core?
On Earth the amount of energy produced by known natural fission reactors is negligible in comparison to the heat produced by alpha-decay of potassium-40.
I'd guess, that will be similar in other planets, at least billions of years after their formation from supernova remnants, when most of the initial (fissionable) U-235 is already decayed by alpha-decay or spontaneous fission.
Fission reactors formed from Pu-239, breeded from U-238, are physically possible, but by which natural mechanism? And if it occurs, why wasn't the U-238 consumed that way early in the planet's history?
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