Gas Giants?

Question

I asked a question like this before and I couldn't figure out which side was correct.

**Do Gas Giants have a solid core?

Ive seen 2 programs that i recall saying that they did not.(not sure)
Please explain you answer.

Answer 1

Gas giants are planets, there are four in our solar system.

We can't know for sure, but our current theory is that gas giants DO have a solid core (we think it needs a metalic/solid core to start out with to hold the gas(1)). We don't know this for sure because we haven't seen or detected these cores and the presures inside a gas giant are too great to recreate in the lab (2). Logically we would expect for the heavest densest materials to be found in the core, this would likely be a solid, a very dense solid.

What gas giants do NOT have (as far as we can hypothesize) is a surface. In other words you could never go land on the solid core. These planets are so massive that you would be crushed in the intense pressures of the atmosphere long before you reached the solid part of the surface. Aside from this there is no solid-liquid or solid-gas boundary like on Earth. Materials are gradually compressed as you near the center so things become more solid as you go down.

Answer 2

The noted science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke believes that gas giant planets could have cores of solid diamond! The major constituents of gas giants are hydrogen and its compounds, like ammonia (NH4) and methane (CH4)

Under the great pressures in the depths of the gas giant, the molecules may dissociate due to heat and electrical activity (lightning due to friction.) If ammonia dissociates, the nitrogen is a liquid at those prressures. If methane dissociates, the carbon becomes compressed into diamond.

Answer 3

I think you are talking about planets (as someone above mentioned), and some people think you are talking about stars. I don't think they know for sure, but apparently they have some sort of liquid core (see the Wikipedia article below). The article continues that they are made up of heavier elements. I remember reading somewhere else that there isn't a definite "limit" to the core, it's like a gas-liquid slurry: the gases gradually become somewhat "slushy" (for lack of a better term), until it becomes all liquid.

Answer 4

Each one varies:

Saturn's interior is similar to Jupiter's, having a rocky core at the center, a liquid metallic hydrogen layer above that, and a molecular hydrogen layer above that

Neptune: The internal structure resembles that of Uranus. There is likely to be a core consisting of molten rock and metal, surrounded by a mixture of rock, water, ammonia, and methane

Look each one up on the internet, it's easy.

Answer 5

Gas giants may have a rocky or metallic core -- in fact,
such a core is thought to be required for a gas giant to form -- but the majority of its mass is in the form of the gases hydrogen and helium, with traces of water, methane, ammonia and other hydrogen compounds.
link: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Giants
http://www.solstation.com/stars/jovians.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/space2/murto/gasgiants

Answer 6

gas gaints are super heated becaus ethey do not have enough fuel to maintain a steady state fusion process, but they have gravity and mass so they are pulled together more tightly. The fusion process countinues but the mass of the star is super heated and expands to countine to burn eventaully the fuel requirement is exceeded that is to say the fuel ends when this happens the gas gaint basically explodes in what we call a nova or super nova.

Lack of fuel causes the star to become over clocked in essence then eventaully the cpu fails and or does the gas gaint. They have a core but the end for the gas gaint is a large explosion due to not having enough fuel and exppanding due to heat to maintain fusion and finally bang they explode.

Answer 7

Are you talking about planets ? Yes, four of them do have a solid core.

Answer 8

It wouldn't be solid in the same sense that the earths core is solid....the sun is full of particles undergoing nuclear fusion, caused by it's own high gravitation...that's why it glows. It's more like plasma...I'm not sure plasma can be solid.