What Would Happen To You If You Tried To Stand On Jupiter?

We are so used to picturing us humans on Earth ’s control surface ( and maybe shortly Mars ) that when we see a major planet like Jupiter , one of the first questions that comes to mind is " Can we stand on it ? "

Let ’s for a moment disregard the utmost conditions ( gravitation , atmospheric press , high temperature , and winds ) that are regain on the elephantine planet , and countenance ’s just fall through the ambiance . What we ’d see is a spectacle like no other .

Far beneath Jupiter ’s ambience is a gigantic sea of fluid metal hydrogen , which would expect and do like atomic number 80 except that hydrogen has 60 per centum the density of H2O . So , you would have to go down for X of G of kilometers to reach a live , liquified , rocky Congress of Racial Equality that ’s possibly substantial .

The interior of Jupiter is not precisely mapped   – that is one of the scientific goals of theJuno delegation , which has just reached Jupiter . The investigation will apply exact gravitative and electromagnetic measurements to represent what goes on underneath Jupiter ’s cloud .

I recognise that the answer so far is not really satisfying , so have ’s drop off the simulation of a magical percipient and let ’s plunk into Jupiter with current technologies .

But it ’s been 20 long time , so let ’s assume we can continue down . At 500 kilometers ( 310 mile ) , the visibility is almost totally gone and the chummy ammonia clouds swirl   all around us , with steer speeds of around 100 beat ( 330 foot ) per secondly .

Underneath the ammonia clouds , there are more piss cloud andmore complex atmospheric effectsthat Juno will hopefully elucidate . Current technology will have been pulverized by now , and our clay will now be traveling to a layer of supercritical liquid hydrogen   – something not quite a gas but not precisely a liquid either .

After about 2.5 hours of geographic expedition , we will   have reached the swimming metallic hydrogen sea . Heavy elements might reach the nerve center after many more hour of fall . So , you could n’t precisely stand on this ocean . But below this , it ’s cerebrate Jupiter may indeed have a stony core , perhaps somewhat similar to terrene satellite . Juno will help do this question during its mission .

Jupiter has most of the planetary mass of the Solar System , and could easy accommodate all the other planets in its interior . There ’s a reason why it is the terrestrial big businessman of the Solar System .

A version of this article was first release onJuly 6 , 2016 .