Origins, Worlds, and Life A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032 (2022) / Chapter Skim
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10 Question 7: Giant Planet Structure and Evolution What processes influence the structure, evolution, and dynamics of giant planet interiors, atmospheres, and magnetospheres? The giant planets comprise 99.5 percent of the mass of the solar system, apart from the Sun, and 96 percent of the solar system's total angular momentum.
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FIGURE 10.1 Question 7. Interiors of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (not to scale)
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Q7.1b How Do Bulk Abundances of Major Species and Ice-to-Rock Ratios Compare with Nebular Models? The gas fractions and ice-to-rock ratios of the giant planets provide fundamental constraints on how these planets formed and evolved, and more broadly, on how different classes of giant planets -- e.g., gas giant, ice giant, rock giant, super-Earth, sub-Neptune (Q2.2; Question 12)
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FIGURE 10.2 Question 7. Atmospheric composition varies in the vertical direction due to thermochemistry in the deep troposphere, cloud chemistry in the upper troposphere, and photochemistry in the stratosphere.
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understanding obtained from study of our giant planets for which much more detailed spatial and temporal information can be obtained (Question 12)
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FIGURE 10.3 Question 7. Visualizations of the interior structure (top panels)
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of these planets (Helled and Fortney 2020)
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Q7.2d How Are Complex Magnetic Fields of the Giant Planet Generated? Planetary magnetic fields show remarkable variations that reveal clues to their deep interiors and internal histories.
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● Search for the locations and extent of discrete layers in the deep interior in all four giant planets, using planet/ring seismology (i.e., the ability to detect planetary seismic waves from perturbations in the motion of ring particles)
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FIGURE 10.4 Question 7. Cloud bands, zonal winds, and deep rotation on the outer planets.
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rings, satellites, interplanetary dust, and impacts (cometary and asteroidal)
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vortices on the ice giants (Hueso and Sánchez-Lavega 2019) , and why they differ substantially from similar features on the gas giants.
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accessible to in situ measurements from space missions. Our understanding of plasma physics processes such as collisionless shocks, magnetic reconnection, plasma pick-up, field-aligned plasma acceleration, plasma interchange, auroral emissions (visible, ultraviolet, X-ray and radio)
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Magnetospheric dynamics depend on the coupling between the solar wind, the planetary ionosphere, and the magnetosphere which comprises the planetary magnetic field and plasma sources described above. Earth-like magnetospheric convection is expressed by coupling between the solar wind and the planet's ionosphere and driven by the process of magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause.
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Q7.4c How Is Energy Redistributed with Latitude and Altitude Within Giant Planet Ionospheres/Thermospheres, and What Is Responsible for Their High (and Variable) Temperatures?
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Q7.5 HOW ARE GIANT PLANETS INFLUENCED BY, AND HOW DO THEY INTERACT WITH, THEIR ENVIRONMENT? Giant planet systems have many components: the planet and its rings, satellites, and magnetosphere.
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Uranus' axis is tilted by an extreme 98° from the ecliptic, leading to hemispheres bathed in sunlight for long portions of an orbital period. Indeed, changes in Uranus's polar hazes have been observed over the Uranian year, and there is some evidence for seasonal change in Neptune's brightness and banding, as well.
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Cavalié, T., R Moreno, E
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Kaspi, Y., E Galanti, A.P.
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Moore, K.M., H
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Q8 PLATE: Cassini's final image mosaic of Saturn, taken 48 hours before the mission ended with the spacecraft entering Saturn's atmosphere in 2017. SOURCE: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Ian Regan.
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