since no spacecraft ever took any pictures of what lies beneath Planet Jupiter’s atmosphere
Chosen Answer:
False.
Although there are things that it is impossible to know (such as where the universe came from, if anywhere), the mundane physical properties of planets is not one of these “impossible to know” topics.
There is a range of techniques that we could bring to bear to learn what the interior of Jupiter is like. recall that no instruments have ever been sent beneath the Earth’s crust, yet we know a great deal about the Earth’s interior including it’s core. We use sonic waves from earthquakes to probe the Earth’s interior.
Similarly we could investigate the interior of Jupiter by analysing the way emissions such as radar behave as they travel through the planet. It may even be possible to suspend a sensitive but rugged probe deep in Jupiter’s atmosphere under a balloon and listen to sonic waves that penetrate deep into it’s interior.
There are also other more fanciful possibilities such as a study of details of the planet’s gravity and one day it may be possible to probe right through the planet using neutrinos. Neutrino science is in it’s infancy and it’s utilisation is more a technological one than a fundamental science problem.
You do realise that scientists have already dropped a probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Mission#Galileo_Probe
This kind of science would tell us a lot about Jupiter, but it is very expensive. Unfortunately too many people are obsessed with the folly of manned spaceflight which is sucking funds away from far more rewarding projects such as Jupiter probes.
Cheers!
by: Quadrillian
on: 9th May 13
