As our biggest planet,
Jupiter's immense presence
helps to hold our solar system together.
Its massive size
and gravitational pull
give it a dense atmosphere,
a turbulent mix
of hydrogen and helium.
This results in unfathomable storms
that have lasted for centuries.
But let's imagine
Jupiter came in closer contact
with an even bigger object,
the Sun.
Would the Sun strip Jupiter
of its atmosphere?
And if so,
what would that look like?
Jupiter's gravity
is nearly two and a half times
stronger than Earth's,
making it difficult
for any atmosphere to escape.
Thankfully, it also keeps out
incoming asteroids.
Jupiter has dense layers of gas,
consisting of 90% hydrogen,
10% helium
and a few traces of ammonia,
sulfur,
methane,
and water vapor.
It has an extended, dilute core
made up of rocky material,
ice, hydrogen, and helium.
And unlike Earth,
there is no sharp transition
between Jupiter's core
and its outer atmosphere.
Scientists believe the core
could have been formed
from a head-on collision
about four and a half billion years ago
between Jupiter and a planetary embryo
10 times more massive than Earth.
A recent discovery
of the exoplanet LTT 9779b
by NASA's
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite,
or TESS,
may unlock even more answers
to Jupiter's formation
and possible destruction.
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then good on you, What If explorer!
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NASA's discovery
of the Jupiter-like exoplanet
LTT 9779b
has captivated the scientific community
with its miraculously close
orbit to its star.
While Jupiter maintains
a safe distance from the Sun,
LTT 9779b is so close to its star
that its atmosphere is evaporating
at an accelerating pace.
What makes it so unique
is that closer orbits are usually reserved
for Earth-like
or Jupiter-like planets.
But LTT 9779b
is somewhere in between,
closer in scale to Neptune.
With an ultra-hot temperature
of about 1,725 °C (3,137 °F),
astronomers have unimaginatively
named it
Hot Neptune.
Oh yeah, clever, guys.
Personally, I would have gone with
The Blue Inferno.
Astronomers believe that
the exoplanet may have formed
further away from its star
and has slowly made its way
closer and closer
over millions of years.
The closer it gets to its star,
more and more
of its atmosphere evaporates,
giving it a squished,
almost football-like appearance.
Uh, American football.
LTT 9779b is losing its atmosphere
because it has surpassed
the critical distance
where a planet begins to lose mass
due to the tidal forces
caused by another celestial body.
Luckily, Jupiter
is far enough away from the Sun
to maintain its mass.
And its moons are far enough
away from Jupiter
not to be absorbed.
So why do most gas giants,
like Jupiter,
reside far away from the Sun?
Well,
all planets were built in the same way.
The Sun's gravity
pulled dust and rock together.
While the Sun burned off gases
such as hydrogen and helium
in the inner Solar System,
the outer parts stayed cool.
This provided just the right temperature
and materials
for planets to form atmospheres.
Some astronomers have suggested
that there are Earth-like planets out there
that may have once been gas giants.
For unknown reasons,
they have entered the Roche Limit
and lost all their atmosphere,
becoming hot Earths.
There are even hot Jupiters out there,
like the exoplanet 51 Peg,
which is similar in scale
and orbits its star every four days.
For Jupiter to start losing its atmosphere,
it would need to come
closer to the Sun
and surpass its Roche limit.
While this isn't likely to happen,
if Jupiter got nudged toward the Sun,
it would slowly start to spiral
closer and closer to it.
It would lose more mass with each orbit.
Eventually, it would get so close
that it would orbit the Sun
in a single day,
88 times faster than Mercury's orbit.
The Sun's strong solar winds
would give Jupiter a tail of gas
like a comet.
This enormous amount of gas
could cloud the light of many stars,
making our night sky
much less impressive.
During this slow process,
Jupiter would be squished
and eventually lose its atmosphere.
It would be left looking like
a barren, rocky planet
like Mercury
but about the size of 11 earths.
As we continue to explore
and discover more exoplanets
like Hot Jupiters
or Hot Neptunes,
scientists can better understand
planet formation,
which is vital
to our understanding of the Universe.
Maybe Jupiter losing its atmosphere
could be a good thing.
With all that gas,
it could be the perfect fuel
to jump-start the Sun
when it's running low.
But as always,
that's a story for another What If.