Narrator: Jupiter... our largest
planetary neighbor.
Oluseyi: Jupiter is the king of
the planets for a good reason.
- It's the biggest. - It's the baddest.
It dominated the evolution
of the solar system.
Narrator: Jupiter is a violent
world of radiation and storms
on an epic scale.
- Thaller: The interior of Jupiter - is kind of hard to imagine.
There may be a
layer inside Jupiter
where you get diamond rain.
Narrator:
Today, NASA's Juno mission
is unraveling
Jupiter's deepest secrets.
What forces shape
its mysterious storms
and cause volcanic eruptions
that jet lava deep into space?
Scharf: Jupiter actually has
more in common with our sun
- than it does with any of - the other planets
in the solar system.
Narrator: We venture deep inside
the most extreme planet
in the solar system
to reveal its inner secrets
and investigate
if Jupiter could actually
be the sun's secret twin.
Captions by Vitac...
www.Vitac.com
captions paid for by
discovery communications
Jupiter... the fifth planet
from the sun
and the largest
in the solar system.
Made almost entirely
of hydrogen and helium,
Jupiter stretches more than
85,000 miles across.
It's unfathomably big.
You know, you can fit
a thousand earths inside.
Jupiter is a beast
of a planet.
It's 317 times
the mass of the earth.
It has individual storms on it
that could contain
the entire earth.
Narrator: Now, scientists
have launched a mission
to study Jupiter
in more detail
than ever before.
Juno is orbiting
this oversized world,
snapping close-up images
and collecting data.
Scientists are uncovering
the secrets
of an extraordinarily complex
and unique world.
Jupiter has 67 known moons
and probably a giant
number of ones
that are not yet known.
Danly: It's like a miniature
solar system all of its own.
It's a whole environment,
a whole ecosystem.
- Scharf: It has enormous - magnetic fields.
It has intense radiation.
- No matter which way - you cut it,
Jupiter stands in a class
on its own.
Narrator: The conditions on
and around Jupiter are extreme.
It doesn't behave like
an ordinary planet.
Formed at the beginning
of the solar system
from the same stuff as the sun,
Jupiter is an enigma.
Is it hiding
a secret history?
Could Jupiter be
a star in disguise?
♪♪
Spread across 50 square miles
of baking sand
in the scorching Mojave desert,
these giant telescopes
listen for radio signals
in outer space.
NASA's Steve Levin
is on the front line,
unlocking the secrets
of Jupiter.
We've known about Jupiter
for thousands of years,
- and we've studied it - with telescopes
for hundreds of years.
In fact, Jupiter was one
of the very first objects
in the sky that was studied
with telescopes.
But when we started
using radio telescopes,
we learned a lot
of surprises about Jupiter.
Narrator:
These telescopes observe space
by looking at radio waves
rather than visible light.
And the radio waves
that come from Jupiter
aren't what scientists expect
to see from a planet.
One of the surprises was this
enormous bright radio source
that turned out
to be Jupiter.
Narrator: Jupiter gives off
a huge radio signal
far too bright for its size.
Scientists think these signals
are created by
small, charged particles
interacting with
a magnetic field.
Most planets have
a magnetic field,
but Jupiter's is far larger
than any other.
- Levin: Jupiter's is the - brightest radio signal
that is part of the sky.
- It's the largest magnetic field - of any planet
in our solar system, by far.
Narrator: So, what is causing
Jupiter's huge magnetic field?
Scientists believe
the answer might lie
within alien chemistry
deep within the planet.
More than 300 million miles
from earth,
Jupiter is an unimaginably
different world.
It's a planet that astronomers
call a "gas giant."
It's made almost
entirely from hydrogen,
the same material
that forms stars like the sun.
But beneath its cloudy surface,
a darkness looms.
Scientists believe a thick,
black liquid swirls below,
where intense pressures
and temperatures
transform hydrogen into
a strange new substance.
The secret of Jupiter's
giant magnetic field
may lie within this abyss.
Scientists in Edinburgh
are conducting
a remarkable experiment
to find out.
So, we call Jupiter
a gas giant,
but beneath the clouds
of Jupiter,
- the planet's not really - made of gas.
It's made of something
much, much stranger.
Narrator: Stewart McWilliams
is investigating the mystery
of what lies
below Jupiter's clouds.
♪♪
Scientists know that Jupiter
is 90% hydrogen.
- McWilliams: Let's go. - Things work fast
when they work here.
Narrator: This equipment
can recreate some of the
incredibly high pressures
found inside Jupiter,
to find out
what happens to a gas
under the extreme conditions
deep inside the planet.
McWilliams:
In the bottom of the ocean,
the pressure from all the water
that's on top of you
is about a thousand times
earth's atmospheric pressure.
And in the center of the earth,
it's about a million times.
But in the center of Jupiter,
it's almost a billion times
- the pressure of earth's - atmosphere.
- Narrator: - Stewart is going to expose a gas
more commonly found on earth
to the pressures found
deep within Jupiter.
He uses oxygen because
it's easier to control
in the lab,
yet reacts to pressure
in the same way as hydrogen.
McWilliams: Oxygen is
very similar to hydrogen,
- and so, they have - similar properties
when you put them under pressure
inside a planet.
Narrator:
At low pressures, light can
easily pass through the sample.
If I put my hand
behind the sample,
the light goes away.
So, we're seeing light, now,
coming through oxygen,
and we're able to see
right through it.
And of course, oxygen,
like hydrogen,
when you squeeze on it,
it starts to change.
Narrator: Stewart begins
to squeeze the gas.
Under extreme pressures,
the structure
of oxygen transforms.
-61, 62, 63.
-There it goes.
McWilliams: The oxygen has now
just turned solid,
and crystals are starting
to form in the system.
Narrator:
The oxygen becomes opaque.
It's beginning to change
its structure.
- McWilliams: We're starting to - see, the oxygen's beginning
to turn a little bit darker
and a little more orange,
and there it goes.
We've turned, now,
our oxygen sample
into a totally black
substance here.
- We were trying to shine - light through it,
and it's being totally
absorbed inside the oxygen.
Narrator:
This black substance is created
simply by putting
an ordinary gas
under extreme pressure.
Stewart believes his experiments
prove that the pressure
within Jupiter
transforms hydrogen gas
into a new, different state.
- But this isn't enough - to explain
Jupiter's enormous
magnetic field.
An even stranger force
must be at work.
Deeper inside the planet,
the conditions intensify.
Beneath the dark hydrogen,
scientists think there's
an even more bizarre layer...
An ocean of liquid,
metallic hydrogen,
an exotic state of hydrogen
that doesn't exist on earth.
12,000 miles deep, this metallic
ocean transforms the planet
into an enormous dynamo.
As it spins, it creates
a magnetic field
that extends nearly
4 million miles around Jupiter,
the biggest planetary structure
in the solar system.
Scientists now believe
metallic hydrogen
powers Jupiter's magnetic field.
But in the lab,
it's proving difficult to make.
McWilliams:
People everywhere are racing
to create metallic hydrogen.
And over the years, we think
we've seen metallic hydrogen,
fleetingly, in a laboratory,
but we can't reproduce
these claims.
Narrator:
Jupiter seems able to create
new forms of hydrogen,
but it defies human attempts
to recreate it in the lab.
McWilliams:
The only possible explanation
for that magnetic field
is the existence
of a metallic state of hydrogen
deep within Jupiter.
And so, it's really...
Experiments are trying
to catch up to nature.
The pressure inside Jupiter
is unrivaled
by the other planets
in our solar system.
Only the sun creates
a greater force.
Jupiter is so big,
so massive that,
we know, as you descend
into the interior of Jupiter,
you will reach pressures
where an element like hydrogen
doesn't just liquify.
It actually begins to behave
like a metal.
Thaller: Now, the reason
a metal is shiny is that,
metal atoms
actually share electrons.
And with the hydrogen
compressed so close together,
the same thing happens,
and you get metallic hydrogen.
This metallic hydrogen
is something
that is very difficult to make.
But because Jupiter
is so powerful, it's so cool,
and it has such awesome gravity,
it can create metallic hydrogen.
Narrator:
Jupiter's magnetic field
reaches out deep into space.
When tiny charged particles
come into contact with it,
they produce radio waves
that telescopes
can detect on earth.
Scientists observing Jupiter
in ultraviolet light
- can see - an extraordinary phenomena
caused by the magnetic field...
Huge auroras,
the brightest and biggest
in the solar system.
The auroras here on earth,
- our northern - and Southern lights,
are caused by the interaction
of our magnetic field
with particles from the sun.
Well, Jupiter's magnetic field
is so extreme,
it actually generates auroras
all by itself.
These great, glowing masses
of particles hitting
the upper atmosphere
- due to - the magnetic field,
but like everything on Jupiter,
they're supersized.
Narrator: But the unparalleled
brightness of Jupiter's auroras
can't be explained
by its magnetic field alone.
Now, scientists
around the world
are investigating how the
auroras have become so powerful.
- Man: I've got to step back, - actually,
'cause I can feel the heat
so intensely here.
What awesome power
is fueling Jupiter's auroras?
Narrator: Jupiter behaves
more like a star
than an ordinary planet,
like earth.
It's made from the same stuff
as the sun,
and supercharged auroras suggest
that extremely powerful
radiation surrounds Jupiter.
This makes getting near
to the planet very difficult.
Thaller: Trying to get
anywhere close to Jupiter
- is really, - really hard
of the magnetic field.
So, when you send a spacecraft,
you understand it's not gonna
live for very long.
We've not been to Jupiter
that many times,
which is one reason NASA's
Juno mission is so exciting.
Narrator: Juno has been sent
right into the heart
of Jupiter's auroras
to discover the secrets
behind the radiation
that causes them.
Launched in 2011, and costing
more than $1 billion,
Juno travels at more than
124,000 miles per hour,
covering over
1.5 billion miles
on its 5-year-journey
to Jupiter.
This is NASA's jet propulsion
laboratory in California.
It's the nerve center
for the Juno mission.
Our first science pass
- with all - the instruments on.
Everybody's healthy.
- The data's - looking amazing.
All the scientists
are incredibly excited.
Heidi Becker is studying
the radiation environment
around Jupiter using Juno.
- Becker: When Juno went through - the really nasty
radiation environment
for the first time,
it's kind of an
edge-of-your-seat-type moment.
Narrator:
Heidi measures the strength
of radiation around Jupiter
by looking at
photographs of stars
taken by the Juno spacecraft.
Becker: This is a regular,
radiation-free image
collected by Juno’s
star tracker.
The stars appear
like points of light,
like you're used to when you
look up at the stars at night.
Narrator:
The stars are constant points
of light in the photograph,
but when radiation particles
hit the camera,
they appear, suddenly,
as additional white spots
and streaks of light.
Becker: So, each of these frames
is another level of radiation.
- And all of these - squiggles and holes
that are being added
to this star field,
that's the radiation signature.
- Narrator: These are - the radiation particles
that create Jupiter's auroras.
The particles are kind of like
machine-gun fire,
creating bullet holes
in an image.
And so, we can count
those individual bullet holes,
- and that's what - helps me understand
the radiation environment.
So, one person's noise is
another person's music or data.
This data from Juno
allows scientists
to map the planet's radiation.
The radiation fields
of Jupiter are so intense,
we know they're going to
eventually fry our spacecraft.
Juno has on the order
of about a 2-year lifetime.
We understand that.
Narrator: This intense radiation
lights up Jupiter's auroras,
- but where does it - come from?
What's feeding Jupiter's
magnetic field with radiation?
Scientists looking for evidence
have spotted clues
in a mysterious bright spot
tracing a path
across the lights.
They now think that Io,
one of the 67 moons
that orbit Jupiter,
holds the key
to the planet's auroras.
There's this very intense
magnetic interaction
between Jupiter and its moons,
and you can actually see this
in the Aurora.
And you see a glowing spot
moving around in the auroras.
- And one of the most - dramatic ones,
the most dramatic footprints
to see, is that of Io.
Narrator: Io orbits
at 217,000 miles from Jupiter,
held in place by the planet's
massive gravity.
It's nothing like the moon
that orbits earth.
Danly: When we sent
our first spacecraft,
we saw, amazingly,
volcanos going off.
- Narrator: - Could these remote volcanos
be the source of Jupiter's
supercharged auroras?
Narrator: Scientists at
Syracuse university in New York
are investigating
if volcanos on Io
are the cause of
Jupiter's magnificent auroras
by making their own volcano.
I've poured lava
over a thousand times,
than a lot of volcanologists.
Narrator: Professor Bob Wysocki
runs the lava project.
He uses his homemade
furnace to replicate
the geological conditions
on other worlds.
Tonight, he's gearing up
to investigate
how volcanic activity on one
of Jupiter's moons
might fuel the planet's
deadly radiation
and light up its auroras.
Bob heats basalt rock
until it melts.
- Wysocki: We're gonna - charge the furnace now,
- and this is, simply, - just putting more material in
to melt overnight.
Narrator: The furnace burns
at 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
- It takes an immense amount - of energy
to melt even a small amount
of rock.
- So, where does Io - get the energy
to fuel its volcanos?
It's all down to Io's immense
immense and malevolent neighbor,
Jupiter.
The planet traps Io
in a gravitational tug-of-war
with other orbiting moons.
Inside Io, the relentless push
and pull from Jupiter
heats up the interior
to melting point,
creating smoldering currents
beneath the surface.
As the pressure builds,
the lava finally erupts
through the moon's crust.
It shoots scorching
fountains of lava
up to half-a-mile high
and floods the frozen surface
with molten rock.
-Okay, Jeff, you ready to go?
-Yeah.
In Syracuse, Bob is ready
to pour the lava.
We are just that one step below
what comes out of a volcano
and making and replicating
what happens in nature.
- Karson: Well, we're doing - an experiment today
to try to better understand
what happens
when ice meets lava.
Narrator: Geologist Jeff Karson
is joining Bob
to see what happens
when volcanos erupt on Io.
Io is extremely cold.
Its surface is made from sulfur
dioxide that is frozen solid.
Bob monitors the furnace,
while Jeff examines
how lava interacts with the ice.
Karson: The physics that govern
the way the lava flows form,
the way they cool,
the shapes they take on,
these are all the same
on other planetary objects,
but the same basic
physics applies.
Narrator: Scientists believe
that the hot lava
pouring out of Io's volcanos
onto its icy surface
has a direct effect
on Jupiter's radiation.
Moving onto the ice,
- a bunch of bubbles - are starting to form.
You see a completely
different style
of behavior of the lava here.
I've got to step back, actually,
'cause I can feel the heat
so intensely here.
But those bubbles are forming
because water vapor
is being produced,
boiling the water in the ice.
- The vapor is escaping - through the lava
and blowing these
beautiful bubbles.
It's a really good analog
for what could be happening
on other planetary objects,
like on Io.
Narrator: The hot lava
causes the frozen ice
to instantly vaporize
into clouds of steam.
Karson: On a place like Io,
it would be sulfur
that's being vaporized,
and sulfur dioxide
making bubbles
and being released
into the atmosphere.
Narrator: Scientists now think
that vaporized sulfur dioxide
is the key ingredient
to explain Jupiter's
extraordinary auroras.
Io's volcanos vaporize
the toxic sulfur dioxide.
They blast it into
a nearly 50-mile umbrella plume.
One ton every second flies
into orbit around Jupiter.
The sulfur dioxide supercharges
the deadly radiation belt
around the planet
with a lethal particle storm.
Jupiter's magnetic field
then captures
the sulfur dioxide particles
and accelerates them
to the poles of the planet
at almost the speed of light.
They strike Jupiter's atmosphere
and create the spectacular
Aurora patterns,
over 100 times
more energetic
than the northern lights
on earth.
Scharf: These volcanos, instead
of just throwing material
a few tens of thousands
of feet into the air,
will throw material hundreds
of miles out into space.
- Narrator: - These eruptions help generate
a lethal radiation
engulfing the whole planet.
This makes Jupiter
the most hostile place
in the solar system,
besides the sun.
But it's not just radiation
that makes Jupiter so extreme.
Deadly storms rage
on the surface.
Today, scientists are seeing
unimaginable weather systems,
enormously more powerful
than even the most
terrifying hurricanes on earth.
Filippenko: The weather on
Jupiter is pretty darn extreme.
There are these belts
that have winds
- that are zooming around - very quickly,
- and then the other direction - in the other.
- Narrator: - Among all the swirling bands,
there's an enigma,
one feature that
doesn't seem to change...
Jupiter's famous
great red spot.
The great red spot
is the longest running storm
so, any image of Jupiter
that you see,
you see the cloud bands,
but then you see
this big red spot.
And it's persisted
for at least 180 years,
perhaps 300 or 400 years,
since humans have been able
to observe it.
Jupiter's weather is unlike
anything on a planet like earth.
Narrator: What makes its storms
so colossal and violent?
Narrator:
Jupiter... more than 1,000 times
larger than the earth.
It's the biggest
and baddest planet
in the solar system.
It's so deadly, it seems
to have more in common
with the sun
than a planet like earth.
Jupiter has single storms larger
than its neighboring planets.
They rage for centuries
and create
its unmistakable appearance.
- If you were to go to Jupiter, - you'd be in for
some very serious weather.
- But hey, maybe the kitesurfing - would be good,
or the parachuting,
because you have to deal with
some serious winds
and some serious storms.
The great red spot
is this gigantic swirling storm
that has lasted
for hundreds of years.
You know, storms on earth
don't last that long.
Narrator: Jupiter's great red
spot is one of the biggest
and oldest storms
in the solar system.
The mystery is,
what keeps it spinning?
Scientists at UCLA's Spinlab
in California
are trying to understand
Jupiter's extreme weather.
It would be impossible for us
to get to Jupiter and survive,
- so we have the next best thing. - Here at Spinlab,
we do simulations
of Jupiter in the lab.
- Narrator: - Juan Lora has a surprising tool
to understand Jupiter's
atmosphere...
A tank of water.
Lora: With this setup here,
we are simulating a planetary
atmosphere in the lab.
- I know it doesn't look much - like a planet,
but imagine just looking down
at the center of the table,
and that represents the polar
region of the planet.
The table will spin.
So, as you head out
to the edges of the table,
that represents lower latitudes
on the planet.
- Narrator: Jupiter is the fastest - spinning planet
in the solar system.
A day on Jupiter
lasts only 10 hours.
- Lora: The fluid in the table - is now spinning
- like a planetary atmosphere - would be.
- So, now, we're gonna - add some dye,
and let's see what happens.
Narrator:
The colored fluids represent
different cloud systems.
- This experiment - should reveal clues
about how they interact.
Lora: Adding any sort of
turbulence to a rotating fluid
will create some
interesting dynamics.
Narrator: Juan stirs the water
to create turbulence.
Turbulence occurs
in Jupiter's atmosphere
when gasses of different
temperatures and speeds
come together.
- Once you get turbulence, - and you disturb a fluid
that is rotating quickly,
like this tank and like Jupiter,
then you get these vortices.
And the vortices
are very stable,
and they like to interact
with each other sometimes.
This is like the red spot.
As soon as it was formed,
it is able to be maintained
by the rotation of Jupiter.
Narrator: Jupiter's rotation
energizes the great red spot
and keeps it spinning.
But how did it get so large
in the first place?
The great red spot
is larger than whole planets.
Winds whip around at over 400
miles per hour to form a cyclone
that rises nearly 5 miles
above the clouds.
The striking red color
is believed to be the gas
reacting with the sun's rays.
Behind the sunburnt surface,
these twisting clouds
remain gray inside.
As smaller storms approach,
they are ruthlessly cannibalized
by the giant.
Their energy and spin
add to the great red spot's
size and power.
Is this superstorm
destined to rage forever?
Today, scientists can see
something strange is happening.
Jupiter's great red spot
- has been changing - over the past 20 years.
So, here, an image taken
in 1995,
- where you can see that - the great red spot
is quite large
and oval-shaped.
If you compare this image
to one taken in 2009,
the spot has become
more circular,
and it's also smaller in size.
And then, from 2014,
shows, again,
a further shrinkage of the spot.
Narrator:
The great red spot feeds
on other storms to survive.
It consumes them,
absorbing their energy
to keep spinning.
And if it's not fed,
it'll starve.
Lora: It's possible that,
in the past 20 years,
fewer of those vortices
have come into contact
with the great red spot.
Narrator: Scientists also think
that some smaller storms
could actually damage
the great red spot.
Another possibility
is that it's eating,
if you will, vortices that are
spinning more slowly
than it is spinning,
and therefore, there's
a net loss of spin.
Narrator:
Storms that move slower or spin
in the opposite direction
could be putting the brakes
on the great red spot.
Its extraordinary longevity
could simply be
an exceptional streak of luck
that's only now running out.
- The fact that it's changing, - and so quickly,
- and so dramatically, - after being stable
for so long,
does suggest that, maybe,
something is taking place.
Maybe it will shrink
till the point we can't see it.
We don't know.
We have to keep watching.
Narrator: Only time will tell
if Jupiter's most famous feature
will survive
another 100 years.
- The extreme physics - on Jupiter
creates unparalleled weather
systems visible from space,
and scientists are just
beginning to understand
the conditions inside
the planet's clouds.
What they are finding
is extraordinary.
One of the big surprises
- when we got to Jupiter - with a spacecraft,
was to see that there was
lightning on the dark side.
Narrator: These images
taken by NASA spacecraft
are evidence of lightning
strikes in Jupiter's atmosphere.
They could trigger an
astonishing chemical reaction
deep inside Jupiter's
colorful clouds.
A thick fog of gas
surrounds Jupiter.
Friction in the clouds generates
super bolts of lightning.
These strikes are many times
more powerful
than lightning on earth.
62 miles
beneath the surface,
the clouds harbor methane,
as well as hydrogen.
When the superheated
electric shock
rips through the atmosphere,
the conditions are perfect
for an extraordinary
chemical reaction
unlike anything else
in the solar system.
- Narrator: Jupiter's - lightning bolts are stronger
than anything
we've witnessed on earth,
and the resulting
chemical reaction
unleashes a shower
of unimaginable riches.
The lightning transforms
the elements into diamonds.
Jupiter keeps its bling
on the inside,
because it may be
raining diamonds.
Now, think about this.
Jupiter has incredibly
strong winds,
and diamonds are really hard.
So, talk about a hail storm.
- Narrator: - Scientists at Cardiff university
are trying to understand
how diamonds might be created
out of thin air on Jupiter.
Professor Oliver Williams
simulates Jupiter's
lightning-charged atmosphere
in the lab.
I'm using an airtight chamber
that I've sucked all the air out
to make a vacuum.
I'm gonna flow in hydrogen
and methane gas.
So, I'm flowing in 99% hydrogen
and 1% methane,
and this is like
the atmosphere of Jupiter.
Narrator: But the experiment
really begins when Oliver adds
the final ingredient...
Lightning.
Williams:
I'm gonna break this gas down
using high-power microwaves.
This is very like lightning,
where the high electric field
is breaking down the air
- and making these - lightning bolts.
Narrator: Microwaves,
like lightning on Jupiter,
break down hydrogen
and methane gas.
It glows purple
as the atoms break apart.
So, diamond is fundamentally
made out of carbon.
Methane is actually carbon
with four hydrogen atoms,
and we're able to strip
these hydrogen away.
Narrator: The microwaves release
carbon atoms from methane gas.
The atoms join together
to form a diamond.
Inside this chamber,
a slice of diamond literally
grows out of thin air.
So, what we've done is,
we've broken down these gasses
- that you do see - in places like Jupiter.
- And from this chemistry, - we've grown a crystalline form
of carbon,
which is diamond.
Narrator: Experiments like this
suggest diamonds form like hail
in Jupiter's
lightning storms.
But something even
more extraordinary happens
as they fall.
As the diamonds are zapped
into existence,
they begin to descend
through the atmosphere
as diamond hail stones.
They plummet thousands of miles
through Jupiter's atmosphere,
towards the core,
racing into higher and higher
pressures and temperatures.
When they hit
14,400 degrees,
they melt, creating a shower
of liquid diamond raindrops.
But what comes next
is an even more bizarre
theoretical possibility.
Diamond rain could lead
to a sparkling diamond ocean
far below.
Jupiter's world may be
stranger than science fiction.
By borrowing
Jupiter's technique,
it's possible to make
any size of diamond.
I've been able to grow
a very thin layer of diamond,
- and this is over - quite a large area.
This is 2 inches.
It's only a few hundred
nanometers thick,
- but if we grow for longer, - we're able to grow
much more diamond,
and much thicker.
Diamonds we find on earth
are millions of years old.
But by mimicking
Jupiter's atmosphere,
they can appear
out of thin air.
- The extreme physics - on Jupiter
creates weather totally unlike
anything on earth.
The tremendous forces
forge a unique world
in our solar system.
In fact, Jupiter behaves
more like a star
than a mere planet.
Could Jupiter actually be
the sun's secret twin?
Narrator: Jupiter is a planet
of extremes...
Moons larger than
the planet Mercury,
radiation stronger than
anywhere else but the sun.
It dwarfs every other planet
in the solar system.
So, was Jupiter meant
to be a star?
Just as the sun is made
primarily of hydrogen,
so is Jupiter.
And so, it looks like a star,
- only it's one - that's not burning.
Jupiter is really massive,
so, that's kind of unusual
in the solar system,
is to have a planet
made of hydrogen.
Narrator:
Scientists are beginning
to understand how Jupiter formed
by investigating what happened
in the early solar system.
They're hunting for clues
by observing the birth
of other distant stars.
Deep in the deserts
of California
sits the Owens valley
radio observatory.
These dishes make up
the Carma radio telescope array.
This location
is absolutely gorgeous.
Narrator:
Astronomer John Tobin scans
the skies for newborn stars.
Tobin: Rather than building one
really big radio telescope,
which is very difficult to do,
they built a lot
of small dishes.
- Then, they linked - them together.
- And the further apart - you move them,
the higher resolution you get,
which means it acts
like a bigger telescope,
and you can see
finer detail.
Narrator: John is looking
for protostars,
brand-new stars
that are only just condensing
from a vast cloud
of gas and debris.
A protostar is a newborn star,
so it's still
in the process of forming
and building up its mass.
And in interstellar space,
- there are clouds - of gas and dust,
and at the center,
a protostar will be born.
Narrator:
Jupiter was formed from
the same clouds of hydrogen gas
and dust that form stars.
Could it have formed
like a protostar?
John is finding evidence
thousands of light-years away
that explains
how star systems form.
Tobin: This image is showing you
that the black and the contours,
they're the intensity
of the radiation
that we're detecting
from this protostar.
There's not just
one protostar,
but there's two protostars.
So, these two peaks
that you see here and here,
those are the two
forming protostars.
Narrator: It's a solar system
very different from our own.
And my first reaction
to this was, "wow."
[ Laughs ]
I couldn't believe the detail
that we were seeing
towards this object.
Because previously, we knew
there was one thing there,
but then we found out
that there looks like
there's at least two objects
around this protostar.
And so, that was unexpected.
- We didn't know that - we were gonna find that,
and so that was
a surprise to us.
Narrator:
Could Jupiter have once stood
toe-to-toe with the sun?
From the outside, each young
star system looks alike,
starting life as a spiraling
disc of dust and gas.
But what evolves inside
can be very different.
Deep in the middle of the disc,
turbulence can cause
the central cloud
to split into two
and collapse into not one,
but two shining stars
in the center.
The stars orbit each other
in a hypnotic dance.
Born from the same cloud,
this solar system
has twin stars.
Any dust and gas left over
will go on to form planets.
In our solar system, the sun
is the only shining star.
But another massive ball
of hydrogen
quietly orbits from afar...
Jupiter.
Could this planet be the sun's
double that didn't ignite?
Scientists believe
that solar systems
with twin suns are very common.
Tobin:
Well, since that first result
using these telescopes here,
we've been carrying out a much
larger survey of protostars,
in order to see just how many
star systems form with two
or three or more stars.
- And we're finding that - a surprisingly large number
of star systems form
with more than one star.
Narrator: John wants to try to
discover the precise conditions
that create these binary
solar systems,
where two stars
orbit each other.
We've been putting together
a compendium of images
of young star systems
in order to find out
- which ones are binary - or multiple.
So, this one is
a single-star system.
This one here is a double.
- Narrator: - As many as half of all stars
in the universe
have a partner star,
both formed from a single
disc of gas and dust
that breaks apart.
- Tobin: - The system we were looking at - is located right here,
where the clouds of gas are kind
of stretched out and extended.
- There might be - multiple centers of collapse
that can lead to the formation
of more than one star.
A cloud of gas and dust
that is stretched out
will likely collapse
into multiple stars
very close to each other.
John thinks our solar system
must have formed
in a different way.
So, we think
our own solar system
may have looked something
more like this one,
where you have just one star
surrounded by its disc,
and then the disc itself
is lower mass
and is not going to fragment
into more than one star.
Narrator: Scientists believe
the type of hydrogen cloud
that gave rise
to our solar system
cut short Jupiter's quest
to become a star.
In its race to grow up,
the sun got a head start,
sucking up 99% of all the matter
in the young solar system.
When it reached
27 million degrees, it ignited.
Meanwhile, the same cloud
was condensing into Jupiter,
rapidly snowballing
to collect two-thirds
of all the matter left over.
- But there was not enough - matter left
for Jupiter to get big enough
to ignite,
so it became a gas giant
more than double the mass
of all other planets
in the solar system combined.
No normal planet,
Jupiter is the star's
younger sibling.
It would make sense to think,
"well, where is
the sun's binary partner?"
And immediately,
the mind goes to Jupiter.
- Narrator: If Jupiter - had gathered enough mass
to ignite into a star,
it's unlikely that the earth
would have ever been formed.
The solar system would be
a very different place
with twin suns.
Instead, Jupiter became
the most extraordinary world
in the solar system.
Everything about Jupiter
is extreme.
Its mass is more than
300 times that of earth.
You could fit 1,000 earths
inside this one planet.
- It has a magnetic - field so intense,
- it would kill you - with the radiation.
Its winds blow
at over 400 miles an hour.
I mean, can you imagine
a more extreme place?
To me, Jupiter is perhaps
the most fascinating object
in our solar system.
It's certainly
the most alien.
It is an enormous,
strange ball of swirling gas
surrounded by its own
miniature planetary system.
Narrator:
Formed at the very beginning
of the solar system
from the same material
as the sun,
Jupiter is a mysterious,
bizarre, and unique world
that we're only just beginning
to understand.