Warm oceans, water-vapor atmospheres is Jupiter's historic truth

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Warm oceans, water-vapor atmospheres is Jupiter's historic truth
Warm oceans, water-vapor atmospheres is Jupiter's historic truth

New Delhi : Jupiter was not always a big ball of Hydrogen and Helium, finds a new study. 

As per latest findings, it has been learned that Jupiter and other gas-giant planets may had "steam worlds" during their young days. 

"Steam worlds" mean warm oceans and an atmosphere that have water vapours in abundance.

John Chambers, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, D.C., proposes that some protoplanets may grow into steam worlds from their modest beginnings as accretions of rock and ice pebbles.

With increasing pressure, ice on the planet must have transformed into oceans and the due to no air present, water and any other liquids sublimate, creating an atmosphere dominated by water vapor, the idea goes.

According to Chambers, a protoplanet can be quite warm and can have temperature ranging anywhere between 32 to 704 degrees Fahrenheit.

"I calculated the structure of atmospheres in this case, and worked out when conditions are right for rapid inflow of gas to form a giant planet," Chambers told Space.com. "The answer is, this happens when a planet is a few Earth masses, which is somewhat lower than the conventional value of 10 Earth masses."

The study has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. You can read a copy of it for free at on the online preprint server arXiv.org.

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