“It’s a shame we don’t have it naturally here on earth, but on Jupiter, there are oceans of metallic hydrogen. We want to find out how these oceans give rise to Jupiter’s enormous magnetic field,” observed Mohamed Zaghoo with the University of Rochester’sLaboratory of Laser EnergeticsRefer to your colleague Gilbert ‘Rip’ CollinsDirector of the high-energy density physics program. Astrophysicists long believed that terrestrial planets with magnetic field are more able to sustain gaseous atmospheres. This makes them more likely for life to exist.
Observes that the habitability of giant gas-giants hasn’t been really looked into very much. Michael WongTheThe University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Integrative Planetary Science.
“Juno is showing us that connections between the interior—where metallic hydrogen can be found—and the atmosphere are stronger than we thought,” Dr. Wong told The Daily Galaxy. Wong studies weather in Jupiter’s atmosphere using Hubble and other telescopes. He wasn’t part of the experiments with metallic hydrogen.
The Solar System’s Strongest Magnetic Field
The mysterious mechanism that Jupiter generates its strong magnetic field, which is the strongest in the solar systems, is one of the most intriguing mysteries. One theory is that about halfway to Jupiter’s core, the pressures and temperatures become so intense that the hydrogen that makes up 90 percent of the planet loses hold of its electrons and begins behaving like a liquid metal. Oceans of liquid metallic hydrogen surrounding Jupiter’s core would explain its powerful magnetic field.
Habitability is Keyed by Dynamo and Magnetic Fields
“Dynamo theory and magnetic fields are key conditions of habitability,” said Zagoo who has held research appointments at Harvard’s Lyman Laboratory of Physics, Max Plank Institute for Quantum Optics, Stanford University, and MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “There are hundreds of exoplanets discovered outside our solar system every year and we think many of these planets are like Jupiter and Saturn. We cannot go to these planets yet, but we can apply our knowledge about the super giants in our own solar system to make models of what these planets might be like.”
The question of how hydrogen transitions into a metallic state — whether that is an abrupt transition or not — has huge implications for planetary science. How hydrogen transitions inside Jupiter, for example, says a lot about the evolution, the temperature and the structure of these gas giants interiors.”
Metallic Hydrogen
Metallic hydrogen is one of the rarest materials on Earth, yet more than 80 percent of planets–including Jupiter, Saturn, and hundreds of exoplanets –are composed of this exotic form of matter. “Metallic hydrogen is the most abundant form of matter in our planetary system,” says Zaghoo in July 2018 about its abundance in our solar system–despite its rarity on Earth–making metallic hydrogen an intriguing focus for researchers who study planet formation and evolution, including how planets both inside and outside our solar system form magnetic shields.
Secret Behind Jupiter’s ‘Energy Crisis’– Has Puzzled Astronomers for Decades
Each element reacts differently to extreme pressure and temperature. Heat water to create water vapor. When it freezes, it forms solid ice. Hydrogen is normally a gas, but at high temperatures and pressures–the conditions that exist within planets like Jupiter–hydrogen takes on the properties of a liquid metal and behaves like an electrical conductor.
It is almost impossible to create metallic hydrogen on Earth
Scientists have known for decades that metallic hydrogen exists, but it is almost impossible to make on Earth. “The conditions to create metallic hydrogen are so extreme that, although metallic hydrogen is abundant in our solar system, it has only been created a few places on earth,” Zaghoo said. “The LLE is one of those places.”
The powerful OMEGA laser is used by researchers at the LLE to fire pulses of light at a hydrogen capsule. The laser hits the sample and causes a high pressure, high-temperature environment to allow the hydrogen atoms that are tightly bound to the sample to burst. The hydrogen transforms from a gaseous to a shiny liquid form, similar to the element mercury.
By studying the conductivity of metallic hydrogen, Zaghoo and Collins are able to build a more accurate model of the dynamo effect–a process where the kinetic energy of conducting moving fluids converts to magnetic energy. The dynamo is strong enough to power gas giants such as Jupiter, but it’s also found deep inside Earth’s outer core. This dynamo creates a magnetic field that makes our planet habitable and protects us from solar radiation.
Researchers can map the earth’s magnetic field, but, because the earth has a magnetic crust, satellites cannot see far enough into our planet to observe the dynamo in action. Jupiter, on the contrary, has no crust barrier. This makes it relatively easier for satellites–like NASA’s Juno space probe, currently in orbit around Jupiter–to observe the planet’s deep structures, Collins says.
“It is very humbling to be able to characterize one of the most interesting states of matter, liquid metallic hydrogen, here in the laboratory, use this knowledge to interpret satellite data from a space probe, and then apply this all to extrasolar planets.”
Collins and Zaghoo focused their 2019 research in the relationship between metallic hydrocarbon and the onset and maintenance of dynamo action. They also explored the depth at which the dynamo formed on Jupiter. They found that the dynamo of gas giants like Jupiter is likely to originate closer to the surface–where the metallic hydrogen is most conductive–than the dynamo of Earth. Combining this data with Juno Mission revelations, simulated models can be created that will give a more complete picture on the dynamo effect.
Exoplanet Magnetic Fields –“Harbingers of Life or Death in the Universe”
“Part of the mandate for the Juno mission was to try to understand Jupiter’s magnetic field,” Zaghoo says. “A key complementary piece to the Juno data is just how conductive hydrogen is at varying depths inside the planet. We need to build this into our models in order to make better predictions about current planet composition and evolution.”
Better understanding the planets in our own solar system also provides more insight into the magnetic shielding of exoplanets outside of our solar system–and may help determine the possibility of life on other planets.
Avi ShporerIn the past, a NASA Sagan Fellow at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Michael Wong University of Rochester’s Laboratory of Laser Energetics
Image credit: top of page, NASA’s JWST’s Jupiter Image showcases auroras, hazes.
The Galaxy Report newsletter provides twice-weekly information on space and science. This has the potential to help unravel the mysteries of our existence, and to add a new cosmic perspective to the Anthropocene Epoch.
Yes, please sign me up to receive my free subscription.
Galaxy Reports:
The Unmistakable Sign of Alien Life. What Happens If China Makes First Contact?
Clues to Alien life to A Galaxy 100x the Size of the Milky Way
Cracks in Einstein’s Theory of Gravity to Colossal Shock Wave Bigger than the Milky Way
Monster Comets Arrive from the Oort Cloud to Black Hole Apocalypse
Enigmas of Stephen Hawking’s Blackboard to Why the Universe and Life Exist
Einstein’s Critics to NASA Theologians Prepare for Alien Contact
Mind-Bending New Multiverse Theory to Dark-Matter Asteroids from the Milky Way
The Mysterious Expanding Regions Of Dark Matter Are Black Holes Holograms
Avi Shporer Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google ScholarAvi was once a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
