Mixing the Cores and Envelopes of Giant Planets: Consequences for Formation Models

Details Mixing the Cores and Envelopes of Giant Planets: Consequences for Formation Models Mixing the Cores and Envelopes of Giant Planets: Consequences for Formation Models

Nov 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001dps....33.2306g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #33, #23.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 33, p.1081

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

Atmospheric measurements and interior models show that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune contain significant amounts of heavy elements, well above the solar abundances. Part of these heavy elements appear to be embedded in the planets' cores, the rest being distributed in their hydrogen-helium envelopes. Detailed dynamical simulations show that most of these heavy elements appear to have been delivered when the protoplanets were not very massive, implying that upward mixing had to occur anyway. We will present two mecanisms that can provide the required mixing by overcoming the strongly stabilizing compositional gradient near the core/envelope interface. One is adiabatic compression, shown to lead to a favorable increase in temperature in water compared to hydrogen. A second and perhaps more promising one is a Rayleigh-Taylor (shear) instability created by the different angular momenta in the core and in the envelope. Given that giant impacts might be able to deliver heavy elements to the planets' centers, the cores of the giant planets may not be primordial after all...

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