What happens if you try to fly through Jupiter

Due to the fact that Jupiter is a gas giant, some are wondering: can a rocket fly right through it like a cloud?

Imagine what a sight would have awaited you in the windows of a spaceship. To look at the hydrogen vortices of the giant planet not from orbit, but up close is great, isn't it?

Not really.

The Juno probe orbits Jupiter. Video: NASA

The first danger that lies in wait for spaceships trying to pierce the gas giant is radiation.

Jupiter manages to emit more energy than it receives from the Sun.

Therefore, for example, the Galileo spacecraft, having approached it, received a dose of radiationJupiter Radiation Belts Harsher Than Expected, Ultra-relativistic electrons in Jupiter's radiation belts, which is 25 times higher than the fatal indicator for humans. In addition, Jupiter's radiation belts can easily disable inadequately protected equipment.

The second dangerthat you will encounter as you approach Jupiter is the risk of being burned up by entering the atmosphere. Acceleration of free fall on Jupiter is equal to 24.79 m / s² - against the usual 9.81 m / s² on Earth. Due to the great force of gravity, you will be approaching the giant with great speed.

For example, an atmospheric probe dropped by Galileo entered the upper layers of the gas giant at a speedGalileo Probe Mission Events 76,700 km / h, that is, 21 km / s.

Because of this, the 152-kilogram heat shield, which protects the device from high temperatures, "lost" by 80 kg, and a cloud formed around the probeThe galileo probe incandescent plasma with a temperature of about 15 500 ° C. For comparison: surface temperatureThe sun The sun is about 5,500 ° C. As you understand, as long as your rocket will not slow down, it will be hot inside.

Unfortunately, the cameras at the dropped probeGalileo end of mission press kit was not, and he was able to transfer only half a megabyte of data.

If your ship overcomes all this, you will see brownish ammonia clouds floating in hydrogen-helium "air" Jupiter, under them - thicker clouds of ammonium hydrosulfide, and further - water clouds, creating monstrous thunderstorms scale.

Here, by the way, it is worth mentioning the third danger - to fall under the lightningPolar Lightning and Decadal ‑ Scale Cloud Variability on Jupiter several times more powerful than on Earth. And the fourth is to be torn apart by hurricane windsDepth of a strong jovian jet from a planetary-scale disturbance driven by storms speed from 120 to 170 m / s. But these are all trifles compared to what awaits you at depth.

The fifth danger, which will surely destroy your rocket and finish you off, is a huge ocean of metallic hydrogen with temperatures ranging from 6,000 to 20,700 ° C. Just imagine: pressure and temperature here convert hydrogen gas into metal. To do this, you just need to squeezeMetallic hydrogen its under a pressure of 4.18 million atmospheres.

The same pressure and temperature will literally dissolve your ship, making it part of Jupiter. And you are unlikely to see anything there, because in the depths of the giant planet impenetrable darkness reigns.

And even if you are able to swim in metallic hydrogen without harm to your health, you will not get out on the other side of Jupiter. You will be thwarted by its stone coreGiant jupiter the size of one and a half the diameter of the Earth, with a temperature of 30,000 ° C and a pressure of 100 million atmospheres. Its density is 30 times that of our planet.

So, if you need to fly through Jupiter, you will have to not only make your rocket invulnerable, but also equip it with a drill.

And remember the cometShoemaker Comet - Levy 9 Shoemakers - Levy 9 somehow tried to do something similar. She didn't succeed.