Uranus and Neptune, the ice giants of our solar system, are too dense for hydrogen to be a major component of their makeup. Planetary scientists estimate that hydrogen makes up only about 15% of their composition. Saturn is believed to have a thicker liquid hydrogen layer than Jupiter, while the liquid metallic hydrogen layer may be thinner. The core of Jupiter and Saturn is composed of rock and nickel.
The interiors of these planets are divided into three distinct regions: a central dense ice and rock core, a fluid metallic hydrogen region, and (at pressures lower) a fluid metallic hydrogen region. Jupiter has a bulk internal composition of roughly ⅔ hydrogen, with the rest being helium mixed with small amounts of rocky silicates, metals, and other impurities. Jupiter’s cloudy atmosphere gradually grades into a liquid, and the layer of metallic hydrogen located in the mid-interior makes up the bulk of every gas giant.
Swirling dense metallic hydrogen dominates the interiors of Jupiter, Saturn, and many extra-solar planets. Building precise models of these giant planets requires an accurate description of the transition of hydrogen. Saturn and Jupiter are the gas giants of the Solar System, with the metallic hydrogen zone for Saturn smaller than Jupiter’s due to less liquid metallic hydrogen in its interior.
Saturn and Jupiter have similar composition and interior structures, but Saturn has a much smaller shell of metallic hydrogen, resulting in a thinner metallic hydrogen mantle and thicker inner regions.
📹 The Hunt for Metallic Hydrogen
An exploration of Metallic Hydrogen, a very alien form of hydrogen that we aren’t familiar with, but could be a very common and …
Does Saturn have metallic hydrogen?
Metalic hydrogen, a rare and exotic material found in over 80% of planets, including Jupiter, Saturn, and hundreds of extrasolar planets, is an intriguing focus for researchers at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory of Laser Energetics (LLE). The study aims to understand how planets both inside and outside our solar system form magnetic shields. Mohamed Zaghoo, a research associate at the LLE, states that metallic hydrogen is the most abundant form of matter in our planetary system.
They are studying the conductivity of metallic hydrogen to understand the dynamo effect, the mechanism that generates magnetic fields on planets, including Earth. Their findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Does Jupiter have a metallic helium layer?
Jupiter’s core is believed to be a dense mix of elements, consisting of a surrounding layer of liquid metallic hydrogen with some helium and an outer layer predominantly of molecular hydrogen. It has also been described as rocky, but this remains unknown. In 1997, gravitational measurements suggested the existence of a core, indicating a mass of 12 to 45 times the mass of Earth. Models of planetary formation support the presence of a rocky or icy core, as it would have been necessary for the planet to collect all its hydrogen and helium from the protosolar nebula.
However, it is possible that this core has shrunk due to convection currents of hot, liquid, metallic hydrogen mixing with the molten core. A detailed analysis is needed before this can be confirmed. The Juno mission, launched in August 2011, is expected to provide insights into these questions and make progress on the core problem.
Do both Uranus and Neptune contain metallic hydrogen in their interiors?
A global magnetic field is created when an object’s interior conveces in a region of electrically conducting fluid. Jupiter’s magnetosphere is the largest in our solar system, formed by the interaction of the internal pressure of the magnetic field with the external pressure of the solar wind. Saturn’s magnetic field strength is proportionally smaller due to its smaller metallic hydrogen layer. Uranus and Neptune, both without metallic hydrogen, are surrounded by weak magnetic fields, possibly stemming from their hydrogen compound cores. The sun’s impact on magnetic fields and other orbiting bodies is also explored.
Does Saturn contain metallic hydrogen layer?
Saturn, a gas giant, is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, with a dense core of metals like iron and nickel at its center. It is enveloped by liquid metallic hydrogen, similar to Jupiter’s core but smaller. Saturn is the only planet in our solar system with an average density less than water, making it difficult to imagine a colossal planet floating in a bathtub. As a gas giant, Saturn lacks a true surface, with swirling gases and liquids deep down. Spacecraft cannot land on Saturn or fly through it due to extreme pressures and temperatures. The planet is covered with clouds, jet streams, and storms, and its colors range from yellow to gray.
Which of the following planets has liquid metallic hydrogen in its deep interior?
Saturn, a gas giant, is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, with a dense core of metals like iron and nickel at its center. It is enveloped by liquid metallic hydrogen, similar to Jupiter’s core but smaller. Saturn is the only planet in the solar system with an average density less than water, making it difficult to imagine a colossal planet floating in a bathtub. As a gas giant, Saturn lacks a true surface, with swirling gases and liquids deep down. Spacecraft cannot land on Saturn or fly through it due to extreme pressures and temperatures.
Which planet has a liquid metallic hydrogen interior?
Saturn and Jupiter are the only planets whose cores contain metallic hydrogen, a substance that is formed when gaseous hydrogen is subjected to the pressures and temperatures that exist within these planets.
Do both Jupiter and Saturn contain liquid metallic hydrogen?
On Earth, elements exist in solid, liquid, or gas states, depending on their pressure and temperature. Hydrogen, a gas, can be artificially compressed and cooled to become a liquid or solid, but remains a non-metal due to its tightly held electrons. Metals conduct electricity and heat well due to their atom arrangement, creating a lattice that allows easy transfer of outermost electrons.
Our solar system has two gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, which contain a significant percentage of hydrogen. However, at high temperatures and pressures, their hydrogen enters strange states, including liquid metallic hydrogen. This is conductive, and is believed to be largely responsible for the dynamo that powers Jupiter’s and Saturn’s magnetic fields. On Earth, the dynamo is powered by liquid iron, an actual metal.
Uranus and Neptune, our solar system’s ice giants, are too dense for hydrogen to be a major component of their makeup. Planetary scientists estimate that hydrogen makes up only about 15% of their masses and assume their interiors are similar due to their similar masses. While hydrogen exists in the ice giants’ atmospheres and forms a liquid molecular shell deeper down, it is never subjected to the temperatures and pressures required to reach a metallic state.
Is there metallic hydrogen in Jupiter?
Jupiter’s interior is a complex system of layers with high pressure and temperatures. At 100 km, the temperature reaches 300 K and pressure is 10 atmospheres. At 20, 000 km, the temperature reaches 11, 000 K and pressure is 3X10 6 atmospheres. At 20, 000 km, hydrogen takes on the properties of metal, becoming a good conductor of heat and electricity. This state is called metallic hydrogen. The metallic hydrogen layer ranges from 20, 000 km to 60, 000 km, with temperatures reaching 18, 000 K and pressure 4X10 7 atmospheres.
Below this layer, Jupiter may have a solid core of around 10 Earth masses, mostly composed of hydrogen compounds, metals, and rock. Jupiter radiates 1. 5-2 times as much energy as it receives from the Sun, likely due to slow contraction of the interior. Its strongest magnetosphere is 20, 000 times stronger than Earth’s, and its magnetic field lines can extend beyond Saturn’s orbit. Like Earth, Jupiter produces aurorae due to the interaction of solar wind particles with its magnetosphere.
Which two planets have layers of metallic hydrogen?
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all planets with cores made of rock, metal, and hydrogen compounds. Jupiter and Saturn have similar interiors with metallic, liquid, and gaseous hydrogen layers, topped with visible clouds. Uranus and Neptune have cores of rock and metal, water, methane, and ammonia, with gaseous hydrogen surrounding the core. Deeper planets have hotter and denser cores, resulting in increased pressure.
Do Uranus and Neptune have metallic hydrogen?
Uranus and Neptune, designated as “ice giants,” are characterized by a paucity of deep metallic hydrogen mantles, exhibiting instead shallow hydrogen atmospheres and a 90° tilted axis. They are smaller and contain less hydrogen and helium than Jupiter and Saturn. Additionally, they lack an internal heat source, which has resulted in the absence of any notable surface features. Extensive study of these bodies has been conducted using the Hubble Space Telescope.
Does Jupiter have metallic hydrogen?
Ginzburg placed the problem of metallic hydrogen on par with Bose–Einstein condensates or room temperature superconductors due to its common atom in the visible Universe and its ability to form compounds with almost every other element in the periodic table. Highly condensed metallic hydrogen is thought to be the main constituent of Jovian planets, such as Jupiter, and is responsible for the dynamo driving their extraordinary planetary magnetic fields. Fusion of hydrogen isotopes is widely seen as the only energy source capable of powering advanced societies over millennium timescales on Earth.
Hydrogen is the first element of the Periodic Table and deceptively the simplest element, representing a classical testing ground for many fields of science, including physics, chemistry, geosciences, and material sciences. The current known phase diagram of hydrogen, combined with predicted unusual properties such as superconductivity or superfluidity, makes it an obvious subject to study in solid state physics and chemistry. Knowledge of its solid phases, structures, optical properties, and interaction with other elements can guide chemical physics in the search for novel compounds with interesting properties.
The dark brown color of phases III and V at higher pressures suggests closing of the bandgap in the proposed P-T phase diagram of H 2.
📹 HYDROGEN is a METAL?! | Metallic Hydrogen is an Astronomer’s Worst Nightmare
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This is the second one of your articles I have watched. I kind of fell into one by mistake but was so entranced I decided to try again and you didn’t disappoint. Very clear narration, no wild claims, excellent explanations and visuals. I’m off to binge on a few more. Thank you for the work you do to produce these. btw you have a new subscriber.
this website reminds me so much of a now-defunct website. it was hosted by a narrator who was definitely an AI (ily anyway JMG), but the subject matter was ancient myths and stories from all around the world. it sounded like a lot of the stories had been directly ripped from textbooks, because sometimes the AI would read chapter headings. the website was called Matrix Wisdom, which, if you look it up today, only publishes wild conspiratorial articles about ancient aliens and the like, which is a damn shame. it happened suddenly too- at one point a few years ago it took down every single one of its articles and suddenly switched to that kind of clickbait content. it’s certainly an interesting youtube mystery that might never have answers, but if anyone here recalls this website back in 2019-2020, please reply because i feel like im remembering a fever dream here, but the website is definitely real also I love this website so much because it scratches the same itch. <3
I love the fact that every time you drink a glass of water, within that glass are some molecules which passed through Einstein’s kidneys. 🙂 Liquid Metallic Hydrogen (LMH) is almost certainly what the sun is comprised of, contrary to the (rather impossible) claim of it being a gas or a plasma. Let us all hope that LMH turns out to be metastable so we can manufacture it as a viable rocket fuel. Because metastable LMH would give us a purely chemical rocketry pathway to occupy the solar system quite nicely. I’m very glad you recognise how incredible dangerous Hydrogen is on Earth. It is truly scary stuff, and my memories of it in chemistry labs over the years are dramatic ones.
It would seem a bit of a misnomer to think Hydrogen would occur in ‘metallic’ form. Yes, it be Group 1 (IE Alkali metals like Lithium/Sodium) it is Period 1 too (the ‘non-metals’, along with He). They appear to be largely ‘the exceptions’ to the periodic tables structure (out to 118). I don’t expect it to occur in metallic form in any non-exotic phases. Whether ‘metallic’ but a solid or exotic ‘liquid’ phase…I don’t expect it to be too usable in practical applications for the next few centuries, even IF it does exist. I’d expect we’d be able to figure out stable forms of muonic matter that have more practical applications BEFORE practical applications of this sort of exotic phase matter.
There are scales in our universe that are so immense, it’s understandable if we can barely grasp them. It’s hard for us to comprehend dynamic chaotic systems. Especially vast systems. What if at those immense scales, we don’t yet fully grasp how things fully work? Like density, mass, Electromagnetism, static charges, fluid dynamics, temperature, pressure, radiation, velocity, etc. *I think there is a lot left to learn about these behaviors on VAST scales throughout our cosmos? I hope we continuously try to improve our understanding of the cosmos over time because it would be foolish to think we fully understand these things. Especially when talking about scales of galactic filaments, multiple galaxies interacting, and many more cosmic bodies & structures. We are getting better & better but some things are just so vast it’s understandable we don’t yet fully grasp them yet. I’m curious to see where things go as we advance our ability to study these things.
Hydrogen can form an intermetallic alloy with palladium that has a formula of PdH2. The hydrogen is in a metallic form in this alloy. One result is that it is extremely chemically reactive compared to hydrogen gas and so it can be used to add hydrogen to stuff like cooking oil to make grease or margerine. It is used in chemistry as a catylist with some extra hydrogen to replace the hydrogen that gets used. ❤
Your voice & back ground music & subjects calms me at night & helps me go to zzzleeeep. That does not mean understand you bore me to zzzleep. I did in the 1990s on an AM radio call-in show (Westwood One – Jim Bohanan Show) asked Bob Ballard if he relized quickly he had made his greatest discovery discovering the black chimneys. He said it took him awhile to take in what he had found….as best I recall.
Metallic hydrogen is the solution not the nightmare. The stars are condensed matter not a gaseous plasma. Dogma is the nightmare impeding science like gravitational collapse of an ideal gas but that requires the open invitation of ideas that are contrary to dogma but it’s much easier to dismiss the growing opposition. Happy New Year.
Enjoyed your comments on metallic hydrogen, Chris. You may be interested to know that the question of hydrogen becoming a metal or having metallic properties has been considered for a long time. In the “Scientific American” 27 Feb 1869, there is the following article, ‘Is Hydrogen Gas a Metal?’ The opening sentence reads, “It has long been suspected that hydrogen would ultimately prove to be a metal.”
It’s because technically matter doesn’t really exist. At the very smallest level, the atoms that make up matter, are themselves made of points of oscillating energy (quarks and leptons). If you break down anything and everything in the universe to its smallest possible scale, we’re all just energy. So it would make sense that every element you see on the periodic table, SHOULD be able to exist, in some form or another, as every possible state of matter.
Anyone saying Hydrogen is boring doesn’t know anything about… well, anything. Hydrogen is the worst possible fuel for anything except rockets and fuel cells outside Earth’s atmosphere. Hydrogen is very expensive to produce, leaks straight out of any container due to the size of atomic hydrogen, and boils off at an alarming rate, requiring very expensive re-liquification if large amounts of fuel are to be retained. It’s incredibly dangerous to transport, and it explodes the very first chance it gets – and it’s “rather energetic”. Do not ever invest in any company which claims it will use hydrogen to revolutionize anything – they will not – and they can not. It has been known for a few decades that Jupiter most likely contains liquid metallic hydrogen, and it seems abundantly clear the sun is also made from it. This because a gas cannot have a surface, and we can see the sun’s surface very clearly in every possible wavelength. And yet the cosmologists continue trying to assert the surface of the sun is some sort of optical illusion. That is hilarious. If we can’t yet even agree on what the sun is actually made of, we can know for sure that the prognostications from cosmologists about the universe at large can not possibly be correct: No big bang. No dark matter. No dark energy. No expanding universe. No redshift as recessional velocity. No black holes. No CMB. And look, if you want to know how absolutely crippled our science truly is, please try to understand this most horrendous fact: WE USE THE SPEED OF LIGHT TO DEFINE TIME.