Are the Giant Planets Fully Convective?

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It is shown that giant planets of pure hydrogen and helium may not be fully convective for temperatures below 4000 K. The opacity due to water and methane is very strong at low temperature levels but is insufficient to restore convection around 2000 K in Jupiter and Saturn; however, the lack of data precludes us from safely modeling the ammonia opacity at wavenumbers higher than 2000 cm -1 . Our calculations also predict a radiative zone in Uranus but the uncertainty in the value of the opacity prevents any firm conclusion. The fluid envelope of Neptune seems to be entirely convective. The possible influence on the absorption of heavy constituents other than CH 4 , NH 3 , and H 2 O is discussed.

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Theoretical or Mathematical/ Jupiter Neptune opacity Saturn Uranus/ giant planets internal structure evolution opacity data Rosseland opacities density temperature fluid molecular envelope compositions absorption metals electron abundance convective interiors methane radiative zone 200 to 5000 K He H NH 3 H 2O / A9635M Planetary interiors A9630K Jupiter and satellites A9630P Uranus and satellites A9630Q Neptune and satellites A9630M Saturn and satellites A9635E Planetary chemical composition/ temperature 2.0E+02 to 5.0E+03 K/ He/el H/el NH3/bin H3 /bin H/bin N/bin H2O/bin H2 /bin H/bin O/bin