The Fuzzy Cores of Jupiter and Saturn
Abstract
AbstractNew interior models of Jupiter and Saturn suggest that both planets have "fuzzy cores." These cores should be viewed as central regions that are enriched with heavy elements but are not distinct from the rest of the deep interior. These cores may contain large amounts of hydrogen and helium though small pure heavy‐element cores may also exist. New measurements along with advanced planetary modeling have revolutionized the way we think about the interiors of giant planets and provide important constraints for planet formation and evolution theories. These developments are also relevant for the characterization of giant exoplanets.
Copyright and License
© 2024. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivsLicense, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Contributions
Writing – original draft: Ravit Helled, David J. Stevenson
Acknowledgement
We thank Saburo Howard for valuable discussions and technical support and the editor and reviewer for a careful reading of the paper and their valuable comments. RH acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation under Grant 200020_215634.
Data Availability
This work uses no new samples or data.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest relevant to this study.
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Additional details
- ISSN
- 2576-604X
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- 200020_215634
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences