This talk will discuss models for interiors of Saturn and Jupiter that were constructed with the goal of matching the recent gravity measurements by the Cassini and Juno spacecrafts. During 13 years in orbit around Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft made many surprising discoveries about the planet and its moons. However, only during its Grand Finale phase when it traveled inside Saturn’s rings, it flew close enough to measure the planet’s gravitational field with high precision. Such measurements inform us about the planet’s interior mass distribution and thus provide information about its current interior structure and, to some degree, about its evolution and the processes that triggered its formation. The measurements of Saturn’s even gravitational harmonics lead to an unexpected conclusion The magnitude of J6, J8, and J10 are too large to explain with any model that assumes the fluids in Saturn’s interior of rotate with constant angular velocity. In this talk, we introduce differential rotation and demonstrate that the even gravity harmonics J2 through J10 can then be matched. We will compare our predictions for Saturn with ongoing measurements of Jupiter’s gravity field by the Juno spacecraft. We discuss common features and differences between the interior models of the two planets and compare our current estimates for the core sizes and amounts of heavy elements in the envelopes of both planets.

Constraints on the heavy elements abundances in the interiors of Saturn and Jupiter

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.