Related papers: Comparative Evolution of Jupiter and Saturn
Remote sensing observations meet some limitations when used to study the bulk atmospheric composition of the giant planets of our solar system. A remarkable example of the superiority of in situ probe measurements is illustrated by the…
The Saturn System has been studied in detail by the Cassini-Huygens Mission. A major thrust of those investigations has been to understand how Saturn formed and evolved and to place Saturn in the context of other gas giants and planetary…
We discuss our current understanding of the interior structure and thermal evolution of giant planets. This includes the gas giants, such as Jupiter and Saturn, that are primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, as well as the "ice…
Noble gases are accreted to the giant planets as part of the gas component of the planet-forming disk. While heavier noble gases can separate from the evolution of the hydrogen-rich gas, helium is thought to remain at the protosolar H/He…
While Jupiter's massive gas envelope consists mainly of hydrogen and helium, the key to understanding Jupiter's formation and evolution lies in the distribution of the remaining (heavy) elements. Before the Juno mission, the lack of…
Hydrogen and helium demix when sufficiently cool, and this bears on the evolution of all giant planets at large separations at or below roughly a Jupiter mass. We model the thermal evolution of Jupiter, including its evolving helium…
The shape of the two gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, is determined primarily by their rotation rate, and interior density distribution. It is also affected by their zonal winds, causing an anomaly of O(10 km) at low latitudes. However,…
The sun and giant planets are generally thought to have the same helium abundance as that in the solar nebula from which they were formed 4.6 billion years ago. In contrast, the interstellar medium reflects current galactic conditions. The…
Jupiter's equatorial eastward zonal flows reach wind velocities of ~100 m/s, while on Saturn they are three times as strong and extend about twice as wide in latitude, despite the two planets being overall dynamically similar. Recent…
In anticipation of new observational results for Jupiter's axial moment of inertia and gravitational zonal harmonic coefficients from the forthcoming Juno orbiter, we present a number of preliminary Jupiter interior models. We combine…
The Galileo probe showed that Jupiter's atmosphere is severely depleted in neon compared to protosolar values. We show, via ab initio simulations of the partitioning of neon between hydrogen and helium phases, that the observed depletion…
Anomalous features for hypothetical Plasma Phase Transitions (PPT), which is expected to occur in mixed hydrogen-helium plasma in interior of Jupiter and Saturn, are under discussion. The characteristics of the Coulomb and density…
The weather layers of the gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, comprise the shallow atmospheric layers that are influenced energetically by a combination of incoming solar radiation and localised latent heating of condensates, as well as…
The recent derivation of a lower limit for the $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio in Saturn's ammonia, which is found to be consistent with the Jovian value, prompted us to revise models of Saturn's formation using as constraints the supersolar…
We calculate the minimum mass of heavy elements required in the envelopes of Jupiter and Saturn to match the observed oversolar abundances of volatiles. Because the clathration efficiency remains unknown in the solar nebula, we have…
Observations of Jupiter's gravity field by Juno have revealed surprisingly small values for the high order gravitational moments, considering the abundances of heavy elements measured by Galileo 20 years ago. The derivation of recent…
The wealth of observational data about Jupiter and Saturn provides strong constraints to guide our understanding of the formation of giant planets. The size of the core and the total amount of heavy elements in the envelope have been…
This article provides an overview of how models of giant planet interiors are constructed. We review measurements from past space missions that provide constraints for the interior structure of Jupiter. We discuss typical three-layer…
The abundance of deuterium in giant planet atmospheres provides constraints on the reservoirs of ices incorporated into these worlds during their formation and evolution. Motivated by discrepancies in the measured deuterium-hydrogen ratio…
The amount and distribution of heavy elements in Jupiter gives indications on the process of its formation and evolution. Core mass and metallicity predictions however depend on the equations of state used, and on model assumptions. We…