If the core of Jupiter is gaseous, and it's core is liquid, why did the Schumacher-Levy comet not go thru it?

Question

If the planet is gassous, and the core is liquid why did the Schumacher Levy comet explode and not just cruise right through the gasses/liquid. I realize that the temperature difference between the two masses must have something to do with the comets demise, but to not have any penetration to the other side of Jupiter is hard to imagine.

It was like the planet just ate the comet up! And burped out a small flame. Being that Jupiter is made of only gas, and has a liquid metal core, it is hard to understand, how/why there was no penetration to the other side.

Answer 1

Yes, density is an issue. Jupiter's average density is a little more than water (even though it is mostly gas). The gas near the surface will be low in pressure but the pressure will keep rising down towards the center. Some of the gas will be much less dense than water and some much more dense. It is hard to imagine a gas that is so dense but keep in mind that Jupiter is actually chemically more like the sun than it is like the earth.

Jupiter is just too dense for a comet to punch threw. Frictional forces would slow the comet down and the original kinetic energy ( kinetic energy is mass times velocity squared) would converted to a tremendous amount of heat that would essentially vaporise the comet causing a huge explosion.

for more see
http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/jupiter_worldbook.html

Answer 2

The comet would have lost kinetic energy as it moved through the Jovian atmosphere. If it didn't burn up during entry, which seems quite likely (there is a lot of friction when a comet enters any planet's atmosphere, the reason meteorites that hit Earth's atmosphere burn up as shooting stars) then it may well still be caught within the liquid core, unable to escape. This would happen because it lost momentum as it travelled through the gases and liquids. It probably would have been brought to a stop before even reaching the midpoint, after which it would have had the added difficulty of Jupiter's gravity to fight.

Answer 3

If you were to 'gently' enter the atmosphere of Jupiter (like Galileo's probe did about 10 years ago), it would continue to fall. It entered at a fairly high speed, but at a trajectory that allowed it to slow, then deploy a parachute. Eventually, the heat & atmospheric pressure crushed the little probe, and it became part of Jupiter. The fragments of Comet Shoemaker Levy hit Jupiter, it was traveling almost straight in, and at an extremely high speed - turning all it's kinetic energy into an explosion about the size of Earth. Jupiter's atmosphere is much denser than Earth's; in fact, when you get deep enough, planetologists refer to it's hydrogen in his area as 'metallic hydrogen' - because of it's density. You've probably heard about the comet/asteroid that caused the Tunguska explosion in 1908 - it exploded in our atmosphere, for pretty much the same reasons Shoemaker-Levy did, without ever striking the ground.

Answer 4

Jupiter has a very high mass and therefore a very high level of gravity. The comet was consumed as a result of having not enough acceleration to propel itself back out. The flame was small compared to Jupiter but very large in comparison to the Earth.

Answer 5

The core is solid and that is what the comet appear to explode. The explosion were as big as the earth. So the core is possible to be 100 times the earth.

Answer 6

More than likely the fragments of the comet burned up in the Jovian atmosphere much the same as meteors do in our atmosphere.

Answer 7

the gasses that surround Jupiter are extremely dense so it would compact it and the gasses heat up to over 10000 degrees f that can melt ice and rock.

Answer 8

Its like your a few miles in the sky falling into the ocean

impact?

brick wall

Answer 9

density...?