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Jupiter


Rakdos

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It's only a failed star in the same way that any other planet is a failed star.

 

Perhaps this came from somebody who read 2010: Odyssey Two and got a bit confused.

 

sounds like it. fagel likes to read that stuff.

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Stars usually form in 'stable' clusters. It appears that binary star systems are as numerous, if not more so, than lone stars. That being the case, Jupiter can be looked at as a 'failed' star in the sense it is a large accumulation of hydrogen and helium(collapsing under its own gravity), which as stated above is not sufficiently dense to trigger fusion and thus, shine under its own light.

 

Whats quite interesting on the Jupiter front of late is they have now done detailed studies of Juipter and Saturns core and found these two jovian 'twins' are not as alike as we would like to think. The study found that Jupiters core is much less solid and much smaller than Saturns. Which throws a futher spanner in the works of planetary formation theories.

 

My take on the situation, goes along with the idea of a supernovae close to the solar system while it was still an accretion disk phase. The shockwave and heavy elements deposited perturb the distribution and density of the accretion sick sufficiently such that density fluctiations soon start the slow proccess of collapsing under gravity into the various spheres and oblongs that inhabit our little corner of the universe.

The chaos unleased by a supernovae, the 'amplification' of core structure imperfections released outward would mark the beginning of the solar system, our nine great spheres and associated companions results of another example of interplanetary pot luck :)

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Methane is a class of moleclues known as Hydrocarbons. That does not add weight for/against life being there. Hydrocarbons are quite abundant in our solar system, because hydrogen and carbon were abundant in the accertion disk when it all began and hydrogen bonds quite readily with carbon.

 

As for a diamond? No. That is carbon by itself not when it is bonded into a molecule. Given that hydrogen is so abundant on/in Jupiter one would say it is a reasonable assumption there wouldn't be enough 'free' carbon to form a solid core.

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  • 2 weeks later...
As for a diamond? No. That is carbon by itself not when it is bonded into a molecule. Given that hydrogen is so abundant on/in Jupiter one would say it is a reasonable assumption there wouldn't be enough 'free' carbon to form a solid core.

 

i was talking about there being too much pressure and the carbon crystailzating out of methane and becoming "free" carbon.

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I don't know enough chemistry to confirm/deny that.

 

I would assume though that even the pressures present on the interior of Jupiter are insufficient to overcome the strength of molecular bonds, particlularly the ones carbon forms.

 

Any chemists in the house who can refute this? I like being wrong, it means I've learnt something.

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