Opravy

It is the first reliable evidence obtained for both Saturn and Jupiter.

The scientist have been developing theories that suggested helium rain on Saturn since the 70s, but so far experimental evidence has been lacking.

Now, thanks to the OMEGA laser, which is one of the world’s most powerful lasers -created at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics of Rochester University, New York- a group of physicists –at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in Livermore, California- have found experimental evidence for Saturn’s helium rain, a phenomenon in which a mixture of liquid hydrogen and helium separates, and little drops of helium remain in the planet’s atmosphere.

According to Gilbert Collins, an extreme matter physicist at LLNL and leader of the project, “It’s a surprise that this happens over such a broad regime of temperatures and densities.

Something was happening with conductivity.” Taking in consideration the surface temperature of Saturn we can observe that it is 50% brighter that it should be.

A way to explain this extra glow is through the behavior of its massive envelope of hydrogen and helium gases.

While temperatures and pressures rise in the planet’s interior, this gases become liquids, and when such rise reaches its peak, the liquid hydrogen becomes electrically conductive, or metallic, while the helium remains mixed in.

Once atmospheric conditions exceeds the peak point, a threshold of pressures and temperatures, the liquid helium fall out of the mixture as rain.

According to theory, this liquid helium drops falling out like rain is what makes Saturn more luminous.

To achieve this results, which suggest that a helium rain could also fall on Jupiter, the scientist needed about 5 years and 300 laser shots.

Acknowledge achieved so far has been “unexpected” and “exciting” for everyone, it has been publicized in Science magazine and presented at the annual reunion of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California.