3083: Jupiter Core

Jupiter Core

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Title text: Juno mission data suggests that Jupiter actually contains Matryoshka doll-style nested copies of every other planet in the Solar System.

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Explanation

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Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, the fifth planet from the Sun, and the closest-in gas giant. The core of the planet is hidden by an enormous gaseous atmosphere, and this comic lists a number of theories about the structure of that core. The first two are theories that are or have been held by reputable planetary scientists (they can be found in the Wikipedia entry), while the rest are ridiculous ideas from Randall's mind.

Diffuse mix of heavy elements and metallic hydrogen

This is the current leading theory suggested by measurements taken by NASA's Juno probe, a spacecraft orbiting Jupiter since 2016.

Rocky core with metallic hydrogen mantle

This was one of the leading proposals prior to the Juno mission.

Valuable treasure

Unidentifiable objects that may be gemstones or precious metals, surrounded by dollar signs. May be a reference to the occasionally proposed idea that gas giant cores might be composed of diamond. This idea was mentioned in Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two, and in 2061: Odyssey Three the diamond is found as it was ejected from Jupiter at the end of 2010.

Emergency backup Earth

This would be a copy of the Earth that can be put into place once we finish destroying our planet. In popular science Jupiter is often described as a "protector" of Earth since its large gravitational field attracts asteroids that could otherwise hit Earth. This theory extends this take to the point where Jupiter contains a backup planet in case it fails in its mission of protecting the Earth. Jupiter's diameter is about 11 times that of Earth, so the backup shown is much too large. "Emergency Backup Earth" was previously proposed as an exoplanet name, and was used later for a different exoplanet.

Regular planet pretending to be a gas giant to avoid attention

The joke here is that there is secretly a 'regular' planet (whatever that means — presumably relatively Earth-like) which is shy or secretive and does not want attention, so it pretends to be a gas giant by hiding inside Jupiter. Of course, planets are not shy in real life, as they do not have feelings.^{[citation needed]} The planet inside Jupiter appears to be Earth-like, and most likely has reasonably advanced life on it, since the large support structures and large surrounding structure itself must presumably have been built by somebody. They're probably quite annoyed at us, considering we've dropped several probes into Jupiter.

This might be a reference to At Attin, a fictional planet in the Star Wars Cinematic Universe. At Attin is a planet that has an artificially-created protective barrier designed to hide it from discovery, so as to conceal its production of Republic credits. The barrier makes the much smaller planet within look like a gas giant and has artificial electrical storms, produced by electrical mines, that destroy any unauthorized ships from approaching the inner planet. At Attin appears in the Star Wars show Skeleton Crew which was released only a few months prior to this comic.

Hard ball from avocado

This theory proposes that Jupiter's core is a giant avocado pit, which is the large seed located in the center of an avocado. The outer layers of Jupiter also appear to be the flesh and skin of an avocado in the drawing, thereby creating a very, very large avocado. If the total mass of Jupiter (1.898×10²⁷ kg) were converted to avocados, as seen in the image, Jupiter would represent 1.81×10¹⁸ times Earth's global avocado production in 2023, of approximately 10.5×10⁹ kg.

Baby Jupiter, still gestating

This theory proposes that Jupiter is a life form which reproduces by carrying a baby version of itself as its core. While this is obviously not the case, it could provide large hints as to how the solar system originated if true. This also prompts questions as to Jupiter's sex, whether it reproduces asexually and, if not, who the other parent is. Recursion also has interesting effects here, as the small Jupiter must also have a core — it's unclear whether this would contain an even tinier Jupiter, and so on.

The "theories" of Immanuel Velikovsky propose that Venus came into existence as a cometary body somehow ejected from Jupiter. This body supposedly spent some time bouncing around the solar system by a mechanism similar to quantum mechanics, producing effects described in the Bible, before settling down into its current orbit. (None of this is consistent with our understanding of physics.) The Baby Jupiter shown in the comic might be "born" in a similar manner.

This is also reminiscent of the Doctor Who episode Kill the Moon, in which it transpires that Earth's Moon is in fact a giant egg, and eventually hatches a space creature which, before flying away, lays a replacement egg/Moon in its place.

No core; flat Earth conspiracists are wrong about Earth but right about Jupiter

Flat Earth is a debunked conspiracy theory that the Earth is not actually spherical, but flat, with some believing that world leaders are actively trying to hide this fact from the general public. This version of Jupiter proposes that while Earth may not be flat, Jupiter is, thereby not having a core at all.

While we see the Flat Jupiter from an angle in this depiction, clearly for it to look spherical from Earth the disc of Jupiter (with 'fake phases' and even carefully adjusted shadows from the Jovian moons) must more or less face the Earth for most of the time. It is not known what arrangements were made to get the illusion past those images supposedly sent back from the various spacecraft that were passing by, or actually orbiting, Jupiter.

Matryoshka doll (title text)

Since Jupiter is by far the largest planet of the solar system (and in fact larger by both mass and volume than all other Solar System planets combined), it could hypothetically contain all other planets nested inside one another. The order from largest to smallest would be Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury. Pluto could be included too, if you are so inclined.

Transcript

Current leading theories for what's in the center of Jupiter:

[Variations of Jupiter. All except for the last are illustrated with a quartered 'solid segment' of the planet's 'atmosphere' removed to reveal the core.]

[Jupiter with liquid material at its core]

Diffuse mix of heavy elements and metallic hydrogen

[Jupiter with a rocky core]

Rocky core with metallic, hydrogen mantle

[Jupiter with a pile of coins for a core, multiple dollar signs being shown]

Valuable treasure

[Jupiter with Earth for a core]

Emergency backup Earth

[Hollow Jupiter with a rocky planet in the middle, the outer layer held in place by inner supports]

Regular planet pretending to be a gas giant to avoid attention

[Jupiter with a smooth ball for a core]

Hard ball from avocado

[Jupiter with a small version of Jupiter for a core]

Baby Jupiter, still gestating

[Jupiter as a flat circle, with nothing chopped off]

No core; flat Earth conspiracists are wrong about Earth but right about Jupiter

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Discussion

NOOO RANDALL USED ‘DATA’ AS SINGULAR NOOOO I HOPE HE FIXES IT. Broseph (talk) 15:17, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

Used with an information science perspective as it is here, it is usually used as a singular (https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/data-is-or-data-are/). At least, that's what I found while clicking around with one of my computer mouses :P SammyChips (talk) 15:39, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

From your source: "In academic and scientific writing, the word data is almost always treated as a plural word, as in The data collected by the research team suggest that the water supply has been contaminated." 172.71.144.179 18:49, 30 April 2025 (UTC) 

Umm... Isn't that that statement contradictory? If it was being treated as a plural, wouldn't that say, "The data ... have been contaminated"? SammyChips (talk) 14:23, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

Never mind. Bad parsing on my part... SammyChips (talk) 14:30, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

((Had written the following. See you've already recanted, making me edit-conflict. But for the sake of anyone else that's got it wrong and needs a nudge back the right way.)) That IP's quote was subtle, but what you have to look at was "The data(pl.) ... suggest...", rather than "The data(sing.) ... suggests...", for grammatical agreement.

The "... [has/have] been contaminated" is a separate element that relates to "the water supply ..." (only "have" if it had been "water supplies").

I think you were reading it as "the data {having been} contaminated", which is not an unlikely connection to have made, but not what this quote says. Not the most straightforward exemplar to use, though. I spotted the potential confusion when I first saw it, nearly added a note to try to forestall any such, but left it to fate instead. ;) 141.101.98.176 14:40, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

English is not Latin. Latin words work differently in English than they do in Latin. In English, "data" is a mass noun (a.k.a., an uncountable noun). For almost as long as the English language has existed, folks have been trying to "correct" people into using Latin rules of grammar, but that's not correct and never has been. Equites (talk) 16:43, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

Exactly. English doesn't say noun adjective either only a few things continued that aspect of Romance grammar i.e. fee simple and surgeon general (I'm surprised it's alloidial title not title alloidial!) 172.71.195.74 20:20, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

If "data" aren't countable, then they probably aren't data... ;) 172.68.205.20 00:35, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

‘Data’ is not a mass noun. The singular of ‘data’ is ‘datum’. People treat it as a mass noun when it is not. Also, it directly comes from Latin, and is a Latin word, and should be treated as one. Same reason why the plural of octopus is octopi. Broseph (talk) 07:02, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

I suspect you're trolling, but if so you got me. Octopus is from Greek, not Latin. English has stolen and mangled words from many languages. "Data" is just one you happen to be familiar with. Your familiarity doesn't mean the usage should differ. DaBunny42 (talk) 09:07, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

Also, it's "octopodes". ;) 172.69.195.179 09:47, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

It's 'octopussies'.172.70.160.139 14:33, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

If there’s two it’s a hexadecapus, three is a tetricosapus, etc. The number of heads is irrelevant.

I looked it up, and it turns out we are both right… octopus is a latin word which was derived from the Greek. It was the only example I could think of from the top of my head. However, ‘data’ should be plural the same way flagella is plural of flagellum Broseph (talk) 15:58, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

Can someone fix the formatting for the table, it’s annoying on mobile and shrinks the page because its 1 row Commercialegg (talk) 15:35, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

Nevermind, it wasn’t loading properly Commercialegg (talk) 15:37, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

Sorry, that was on me. Just figuring out how to use tables. BobcatInABox (talk) 17:07, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

I think it contains nougat. Perhaps with further study of Jupiter, humanity will finally be able to learn what, exactly, nougat is. Equites (talk) 16:35, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

This image has always given me the impression it's actually a delicious frozen cake. Zmatt (talk) 18:08, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

Nonsense - it's obviously a toy/choking hazard.141.101.99.89 08:21, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

Two things:

1: It looks like Jupiter is made of avocado flesh in the avocado pit image.

2: If jupiter were a giant avocado with the same mass, it would represent 95 quadrillion years' worth of global avocado production. --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 19:37, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

Sounds like a solution to the quacamole crisis since Trump's tariffs on Mexico. Barmar (talk) 17:14, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

There's probably some pun to be made about a mole of guacamole, but you would actually need several thousand moles of avocados to equal the mass of jupiter. -- Dextrous Fred (talk) 01:45, 2 May 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Also, the baby Jupiter raises questions about it's sexuality. Also who the father is. --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 19:37, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

Jupiter's parents are Saturn and Opis. Seems as if Saturn is a single parent since Opis is nowhere to be found in the solar system. 172.69.109.86 21:51, 30 April 2025 (UTC)

It looks to me like Velikovsky confused Aphrodite with Athena. 172.69.150.94 17:58, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

In an Arthur C. Clarke novel, I think 2010: Odyssey Two, it was postulated that the core of Jupiter is diamond. I have since seen articles from others with a similar theory. It is apparently plausible, given the extreme pressures and presence of carbon. Shamino (talk) 13:40, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

Who else didn't know the movies and thought 2010: Odyssey Two was a comic (probably just me) 172.71.166.89 15:19, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

Ignore the movies. They butchered the stories. Read the novels. And after 2010, there is 2061: Odyssey Three and 3001: The Final Odyssey. They get a bit weird, but great stories. Shamino (talk) 13:09, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

What's up with the description "Hard ball from avocado" rather than "Avocado pit"? The only results from a Google search for "Hard ball from avocado" reference this XKCD, so it doesn't seem to be some commonly-used term for an avocado pit that I'd never heard. Did Randall just have a brain fart and forget the word "pit"? Seems unlikely. If not, if there some hidden meaning to "Hard ball from avocado"? SethML (talk) 15:51, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

Presumably it's because the joke rests on the fact that it's roughly spherical, so makes a decent analogy with a planetary core (and if you cut in to the avocado in the right way you could make it look sort of like one of those cutaway planetary layer diagrams). 172.70.162.14 15:59, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

Gemini seems to have a better understanding of humor than I do: "The phrase highlights the mundane, everyday nature of an avocado pit and the unsophisticated way it's described ("hard ball"), making its inclusion as a "leading theory" for the core of a gas giant planet ridiculous and therefore funny. It's unexpected and breaks the pattern of the more scientific-sounding labels, contributing to the overall แหย่ (yae - playful teasing) tone of the strip." SethML (talk) 15:55, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

Hmm - well it's very good at sounding confident, but I think here it's confidently wrong. There's nothing particularly 'scientific-sounding' about "Valuable treasure" and "Emergency backup Earth", for example. 172.71.26.107 15:08, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

Apparently, if Jupiter really were an avocado it would be about 1/4 less dense. Weirdly, googling the two gave me avocado density in kg/m^3, and Jupiter density in g/cm^3... 172.70.162.13 16:06, 1 May 2025 (UTC)
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