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Questions tagged [gas-giants]

Questions regarding massive planets composed of layers of gases, such as hydrogen and helium, surrounding a solid/liquid core.

1 vote
0 answers
61 views

Could we optically observe metallic hydrogen in space?

As many calculations have been done on whether metallic hydrogen is metastable or not in low-pressure environment, It occurred to me that by the fact that we have not observed any metallic hydrogen so ...
C-Consciousness's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
269 views

Is the transition between ice giants and Jupiter-like gas giants somewhat fluid?

The ice giants Uranus and Neptune are often being distinguished from Saturn and Jupiter who consist mostly of hydrogen and helium, while the ice giants have more of heavier elements than hydrogen and ...
John's user avatar
  • 1,538
3 votes
2 answers
137 views

Spin-down of gas-giants during formation

In the paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.00457 about rotation rates of gas giants it says: "owing to accumulation of angular momentum stored in the source material, a planetary mass object should ...
sno's user avatar
  • 1,464
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Gravity of a gaseous planet without a core

Both Jupiter and Saturn have rocky cores. Is there such of a thing as a gaseous planet without a core? And would a planet without a core have gravity?
Bookaholic's user avatar
  • 1,559
1 vote
1 answer
76 views

What is the meaning of grain opacity and why does it affect the formation time of gas giants?

While doing research for my presentation on the formation of gas giants, more specifically the "core-accretion model", I have been stumbling across the term "grain opacity" and don'...
Julian Saling's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
275 views

Could there be liquid water on Uranus? Are there any indications that there might be?

Like most planets, Uranus has a very cold outer atmosphere and a very hot core. What we see is a very thick primary atmosphere with plenty of hydrogen. Deeper in, we might suppose that water ...
Mike Serfas's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
110 views

Is there a link between the amount of swirling and vorticity in a gas giant's atmosphere and its distance to its Sun?

This is an empirical observation of mine: I have noticed that out of the 4 gas giants in our Solar System, Jupiter's atmosphere has the most visible swirls and complex cloud patterns, followed by ...
Hash's user avatar
  • 503
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

Maximum and minimum masses and sizes of giant planets?

What are the minimum & maximum masses and diameters of giant planets? Minimum end of the scale Earth has mass of 1 Earth mass and a mean radius of 6,371.0 kilometers, and thus a mean diameter of ...
M. A. Golding's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
114 views

Assuming a hypothetical system without gas but only solid rocks, how big of a planet can form through the coalescing of these rocks?

I have heard that gas giants are primarily huge solid bodies like regular rocky planets that exponentially gained more and more gas in their atmosphere through their increase in mass which they use ...
Hash's user avatar
  • 503
1 vote
1 answer
93 views

Moons within a Gas Giant

Assuming a gas giant is primarily gaseous past our visibility, is it possible that a moon traveling at a sufficient velocity would be able to exist within the atmosphere, or would terminal velocity ...
mkinson's user avatar
  • 195
3 votes
1 answer
297 views

Why don't we detect planets around OB stars and no terrestrial planets around A or early F stars?

Looking at an exoplanet database, I noticed that there are very few planets detected around main-sequence OBA stars, and most of them are gas giants/brown dwarfs. Why can't we detect low-mass planets ...
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,684
11 votes
0 answers
212 views

What is the birth of a star like? [closed]

Here's what I'm curious about. So this hydrogen gas collects and at some point, it eventually becomes a star. What does that process look like? If you were there as a witness to the formation of a ...
Pete's user avatar
  • 241
-4 votes
1 answer
126 views

Can air/gas be slowed down by friction [closed]

Can wind/air that is moving at average speeds be slowed down by the cause of Friction? Also, Can Air bubbles in water be slowed down because of Friction? Please cite your sources.
Tardy's user avatar
  • 255
8 votes
1 answer
617 views

If the fifth gas giant in the early Solar System was completely ejected, where would it be now?

I've read about the possible 5th gas giant in the Solar System, and about its ejection about ~100 million years after the formation of the Solar System. However, I have not seen anything about its ...
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,684
0 votes
1 answer
294 views

Could a star become a planet?

Could a star become a planet? I am asking this because the gas giants are ¨Failed Stars¨ and they are classified as planets in our solar system.
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