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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: New Model of Jupiter's Core Ignites Planet Birth Debate


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Two large storms swirl across Jupiter's face in a 2006 image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

A new computer model suggests that Jupiter's rock-ice core is more than twice as big as thought, supporting a theory that planetary cores form as smaller pieces of rock and ice collide and merge.

Image courtesy NASA, ESA, A. Simon-Miller (Goddard Space Flight Center), I. de Pater, M. Wong (UC Berkeley)