How is there liquid hydrogen inside Jupiter if the critical point is only 33K?
Answer:
This is a good question. If you were talking about typical phase diagrams for Hydrogen on the surface of the Earth, then terms like superfluid would be applicable. However, you are dealing with the interior of Jupiter. The conditions there are very much different than anything with which humans have had direct contact.
Take a look at the phase diagrams listed below.
Keep in mind that these are all based upon guess-work and assumptions. No direct measurments have ever been taken, recorded or transmitted from more than a mile or so below the surface of Jupiter.
You probably are referring to liquid metal hydrogen. . .
Jupiter owes it's magnetic field to metallic hydrogen which phases at pressures above one million atmospheres and at a range from 100 to 300 K.
You know, I was thinking the same thing. There are so many mind bending things that we can not explain, but have theories on. Mercury has magnetic field which means there is some sort of liquid, possibly molten iron, creating that magnetic field. The problem is that the liquid could not be there if the planet being as old as it is and as close to the sun it is.
So who knows?
I believe they refer to it as "liquid hydrogen" because the pressure of Jupiter's atmosphere, as you approach the core, becomes so great that the hydrogen would seem more like a liquid than a gas as a result of the compression.
Go even further down, and the monstrous compression from the weight of the upper atmosphere would press the hydrogen into a "metallic" state; though obviously not actually a metal.
The critical point of 33K is for pressures of one atmosphere (101 kPa) but inside Jupiter the pressure is so great you actually get metallic hydrogen
The answers post by the user, for information only, FunQA.com does not guarantee the right.
More Questions and Answers: