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| The planet Jupiter does not have well defined surface boundary |
The inner planets of outer solar system have rocky surface like Earth means, Mercury, Venus and Mars have surfaces with mountains and valleys.
But do you know that outer 
four planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune do not have any solid surface. Are you
finding it amazing? Let us look at it more carefully.
four planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune do not have any solid surface. Are you
finding it amazing? Let us look at it more carefully.
The outer planet are
gaseous, they are made up of Hydrogen and Helium gases. Their atmosphere
contains storms which move on these planets with tremendous speed up to 1000 Km/Hr.
As we move downward into
atmosphere of these planets the density of air increases. For e.g. on Jupiter the
pressure becomes double with the decrease in height by 3 miles. The Galileo
probe crossed through the atmosphere of Jupiter by 150 miles and observed the change in pressure from
0.45 bars to 22 bars. If it would move to the 100 miles more, the pressure must
be increased up to 1000 bar.
The rate of increase of pressure and density with depth is different for different planets. As we move down farther, the density of gas becomes equal to density of liquid. At this point gas is indistinguishable from liquid. The density and volume of material below this point remains constant showing liquid nature and incompressibility in spite of increasing weight of atmosphere.
The rate of increase of pressure and density with depth is different for different planets. As we move down farther, the density of gas becomes equal to density of liquid. At this point gas is indistinguishable from liquid. The density and volume of material below this point remains constant showing liquid nature and incompressibility in spite of increasing weight of atmosphere.
This liquid is actually
much different than normal liquid because although density is same as that of
liquid but its temperature is much higher than the temperature at which gas
condenses.
So this region where gas
and liquid are coexisting may be defined as surface of planet. Although surface
of these planets is improperly defined but their core is solid.
In spite of these
irregularities, these planets are always amazing.