Chapter 11: Jovian Planet Systems

11.1 A Different Kind of Planet

Jovian Planet Composition

Jupiter and Saturn are made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with just a few percent of their
masses in the form of hydrogen compounds and even smaller amounts of rock and metal. In fact, their
overall compositions are much more similar to the composition of the Sun than to the compositions of
the terrestrial planets. Some people even call Jupiter a “failed star” because it has a star like
composition but lacks the nuclear fusion needed to make it shine.

This is a consequence of its size: Although Jupiter is large for a planet, it is much less massive than any
star. As a result, its gravity is too weak to compress its interior to the extreme temperatures and
densities needed for unclear fusion. Uranus and Neptune are much smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, and
also contain smaller proportions of hydrogen and helium gas.

Instead they are primarily made of hydrogen compounds such as water, methane and ammonia, along
with smaller amounts of metal and rock.
Jovian Density Differences

Building a planet out of Hydrogen and Helium is like building a pillow tower. Imagine building a planet
pillow by pillow. As each new pillow is added, those on the bottom are compressed more by those
above. As the lower layers are forced closer together their mutual gravitational attraction increases,
compressing them even further.

The extra mass of Jupiter compresses its interior to a much higher density. More precise calculations
show that Jupiter’s radius is almost the maximum possible radius for a Jovian planet. If much more gas
were added to Jupiter, its weight would actually compress the interior enough to make the planet
smaller rather than larger.

Jovian Planet Rotation and Shape

The Jovian planets rotate much more rapidly than any of the terrestrial worlds. We can observe the
rotation of clouds, but these observations can be deceptive because the speeds at which we observe
clouds to move are affected by winds as well as planetary rotation.

Equatorial regions complete each rotation in less time than polar regions. We can measure the rotation
rates of Jovian interiors by tracking charged particles trapped in their magnetospheres. The rotation rate
of the magnetospheres should be the same as the rotation period deep in the interior, where the
magnetic field is generated.

The Jovian Day ranges from about 10 hours on Jupiter and Saturn to about 16-17 hours on Uranus and
Neptune. Because Jovian planets are much larger in radius than Earth, their surface rotation speeds are
much greater compared to Earth’s than the periods alone would suggest.

The size of the equatorial bulge depends on the balance between the strength of gravity and the rate of
rotation. With its rapid 10-hour rotation period and relatively weak surface gravity, Saturn is about 10%
larger in diameter at its equator than from pole to pole.
Jovian Planet Composition

Recall that all four Jovian planets formed in the outer solar system, where it was cold enough for
hydrogen compounds to condense into ices. Because hydrogen compounds were so much more
abundant than metal and rock, some of the ice-rich planetesimals of the outer solar system grew to
great size. Once these planetesimals became sufficiently massive, their gravity allowed them to draw in
the hydrogen and helium gas that surrounded them.

Jupiter and Saturn captured so much hydrogen and helium gas that these gases now make up the vast
majority of their masses. The ice-rich planetesimals from which they grew now represent only about 3%
of Jupiter’s mass and about 10% of Saturn’s mass. Uranus and Neptune pulled in much less hydrogen
and helium gas.

The solid particles that condensed farther from the Sun should have been more widely spread out than
those that condensed nearer to the Sun, which means it would have taken longer for them to accrete
into large, icy planetesimals. As the nearest Jovian planet to the Sun, Jupiter would have been the first
to get a planetesimal large enough for its gravity to start drawing in gas.

What are Jovian Planets like on the Inside?

Based on their compositions, Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants because they capture so much hydrogen
and helium gas. The name may be less fitting for hydrogen and helium gas. The name may be less fitting
for Uranus and Neptune, since they are mostly of metals beside pure hydrogen and helium.
Inside Jupiter

Instead, they differ in the phase (such as liquid or gas) of their hydrogen. To get a better sense of this
layering, imagine plunging head-on into Jupiter in a futuristic spacesuit that allows you to survive the
extreme interior conditions. The extreme pressure forces hydrogen into a compact, metallic form. Just
as in the case with everyday metals, electrons are free to move around in metallic hydrogen, so it
conducts electricity quite well. This layer extends through most of the rest of Jupiter’s interior and, as
we’ll see shortly, it is where Jupiter’s magnetic field is generated.

Jupiter’s core materials are probably all mixed together. The core contains about 10 times as much mass
as the entire Earth, but it is only about the same size as Earth because it is compressed to such high
density.

Comparing Jovian Interiors

Because all four Jovian planets have cores of about the same mass, their interiors differ mainly in the
hydrogen/helium layers that surround their cores. That is, Saturn has thicker layers of gaseous and liquid
hydrogen and a thinner and more deeply buried layer of metallic hydrogen. Uranus and Neptune have
somewhat different layering because their internal pressures never have become high enough to form
liquid or metallic hydrogen, so they have only a thick layer of gaseous hydrogen surrounding their cores
of hydrogen compounds, rock, and metal.
The cores of Uranus and Neptune are larger in radius than the cores of Jupiter and Saturn, even though
they have about the same mass, because they are less compressed by their lighter-weight overlying
layers. The less extreme interior conditions also allowed Uranus’s and Neptune’s cores to differentiate,
so hydrogen compounds reside in a layer around a center of rock and metal.

Internal Heat

Jupiter has a tremendous amount of internal heat, like any hot object, it gradually loses this heat to
space by emitting thermal radiation. In fact, Jupiter emits almost twice as much energy as it receives
from the Sun. This heat contributes significant energy to Jupiter’s upper atmosphere.

It remains much of the heat it acquired from accretion, differentiation, and radioactivity, but calculations
show that the gradual escape of this heat is not enough to explain Jupiter’s present-day heat loss.
Instead, the leading hypothesis suggests that Jupiter is still slowly contracting. Contraction converts
gravitational potential energy to thermal energy, so continued contraction would be an ongoing source
of internal heat.

Saturn also emits nearly twice as much energy as it receives from the Sun, suggesting that it too, must
have some ongoing source of heat. However, Saturn’s mass is too small for it to be generating heat by
contracting like Jupiter. Instead, Saturn’s pressure and its lower interior temperatures may allow helium
to condense into liquid form at relatively high levels within the interior. The helium droplets slowly rain
to the deeper interior. The gradual helium rain represents a sort of ongoing differentiation because it
means that higher density material is still sinking inside the planet.

Neither Uranus nor Neptune has internal conditions that should allow helium rain to form, and most of
their original heat from accretion should have escaped long ago. This explains why Uranus emits virtually
no excess internal energy. Neptune, however, is more mysterious. Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune
emits nearly twice as much energy as it receives from the Sun. The only reasonable hypothesis for this
internal heat is that Neptune is somehow still contracting, somewhat like Jupiter, thereby converting
gravitational potential energy into thermal energy.
What is weather like on Jovian Planets?

These atmospheres are made mostly of hydrogen and helium gas, mixed with small amounts of various
hydrogen compounds. The most common compounds are water, methane, and ammonia; this should
make sense because after hydrogen and helium, the three next most common elements in the universe
are oxygen, carbon and nitrogen.

Although all these hydrogen compounds together make up only a miniscule fraction of the Jovian
planets’ atmospheres, they are responsible for virtually all aspects of their appearances. Some of these
compounds condense to form the clouds that are so prominent in telescope and spacecraft images.

Atmospheric Structure, Clouds, and Colors: Jupiter

High above the cloud tops, Jupiter’s thermosphere consists of very low-density gas heated to about
1000K by solar X rays and by energetic particles from Jupiter’s magnetosphere. Below the
thermosphere, we find Jupiter’s stratosphere. Recall that a planet can have a stratosphere only if it has a
gas that can absorb ultraviolet light from the Sun. Ozone plays this role on Earth. Jupiter lacks molecular
oxygen and ozone but has a few minor atmospheric ingredients that absorb solar ultraviolet photons.

Below the stratosphere lies Jupiter’s troposphere, where the temperature rises with depth because
greenhouse gases trap both solar heat and Jupiter’s own internal heat. The fact that temperatures
increase with depth in the troposphere leads to strong convection and explains the thick clouds that
enshroud Jupiter.

Saturn has the same set of three cloud layers as Jupiter, but the lower temperatures mean these layers
occur deeper in Saturn’s atmosphere. Less light penetrates to the depths at which Saturn’s clouds are
found, and the light they reflect is more obscured by the atmosphere above them. Less light penetrates
to the depth at which Saturn’s clouds are found, and the light they reflect is more obscured by the
atmosphere above them. Saturn’s cloud layers are also separated by greater vertical distances than
Jupiter’s because Saturn’s weaker gravity causes less atmospheric compression.

Uranus is a lighter blue than Neptune, probably because it has more smog-like haze to scatter sunlight in
its upper atmosphere. The extra haze is probably a result of Uranus’s “sideways” axis tilt, which leads to
extreme seasons. With one hemisphere remaining sunlit for decades, gases have plenty of time to
interact with solar ultraviolet light and to make the chemical ingredients of the haze.

Jupiter’s Magnetosphere

Of the four Jovian planets, Jupiter has by far the strongest magnetic field; it is some 20,000 times as
strong as Earth’s magnetic field. A planet can have a global magnetic field if it has:

1. An interior region of electrically conducting fluid.

2. Convection in that layer of fluid
3. At least moderately rapid rotation

Jupiter’s magnetosphere traps far more charged particles than Earth’s largely because it has a source of
particles that Earth’s lacks. Nearly all the charged particles in Earth’s magnetosphere come from the
Solar Wind, but in Jupiter’s case its volcanically active moon, Io, contributes many additional particles.
These particles help create auroras on Jupiter.

The other jovian planets also have magnetic fields and magnetospheres but theirs are much weaker
than Jupiter’s. The strength of each planet’s magnetic field depends primarily on the size of the
electrically conducting layer buried in its interior. Saturn’s magnetic field is weaker than Jupiters because
it has a thinner layer of electrically conducting metallic hydrogen. Uranus and Neptune have no metallic
hydrogen at all.
The size of a planet’s magnetosphere depends not only on the magnetic field strength, but also on the
pressure of the solar wind against it. The pressure on the solar wind is weaker at greater distances from
the Sun, so the magnetospheric “bubbles” surrounding more distant planets are larger than they would
be if these planets were closer to the Sun.