Why can't we penetrate the clouds of gas planets with doppler rader or something to see the planet's core?
2007-08-28 16:08:27 · 4 answers · asked by Alt Dawg 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Spelling.....RADAR
Radar can be used to penetrate the cloud and/or dust storms surrounding a planet. However, there is a limit as to how far radar can penetrate and still return a useable echo to the passing satellite, probe, or space ship. I would guess that possibly a mile or so of penetration might be workable. However, radar singals must strike something solid to obtain a good echo for the orbiting receivers. A gas planet is just that...a huge ball of gas...until you go several thousands of miles down into the center of the planet to the core which might have solid materials, even metals inside of it. By then, the radar signal would have been so greatly attenuated that there would be no useable return echo.
Jupiter is 88,846 Miles in Diameter. Its core would be somewhere in the vicinity of 44,000 Miles below the surface of the planet (Estimate).
Saturn is 74,914 Miles in Diameter. Its core would be somewhere in the vicinity of 37,000 Miles below the surface of the planet (Estimate).
Uranus is 31,763 Miles in Diameter. Its core would be somewhere in the vicinity of 16,000 Miles below the surface of the planet (Estimate).
Neptune is 30,760 Miles in Diameter. Its core would be somewhere in the vicinity of 15,000 Miles below the surface of the planet (Estimate).
And, to conclude, no radar singals that I know of can penetrate from 15,000 to 40,000 Miles of dense gas and
liquid gas (distances from paragraphs above). Doing so would take extremely powerful radar transmissions, and are certainly not technologies suitable for use aboard orbiting probes or satellites in deep space due to the massive weight of such transmitting and receiving equipment.
2007-08-28 16:30:14 · answer #1 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Theoretically it's possible, but from a practical standpoint it's not. For example, the core of Uranus is some 25,000 km from its cloud tops. It would take one helluva radar system to penetrate the extremely dense inner layers of Uranus's atmosphere to a depth of 25,000 km
2007-08-28 16:21:43 · answer #2 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is possible; we just haven't done it yet, unless you count Venus, which is kind of like a mini-gas giant planet.
2007-08-28 16:14:53 · answer #3 · answered by Sciencenut 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because of the interference of the ionosphere of these gas planets
2007-08-28 16:13:48 · answer #4 · answered by chris 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋