Gas study sheds new light on solar system

SCIENTISTS HAVE shed new light on the chemical make-up of the solar system’s largest planets.

Researchers have used advanced laboratory techniques to reveal how hydrogen and helium – which make up most of Jupiter, inset, and Saturn – behave under the extreme pressures found inside the planets.

The findings suggest the gases do not react with each other inside Jupiter and Saturn, where pressures can be more than two-anda-half million times higher than Earth’s atmosphere. The discovery comes after previous research suggested the gases do react under such high pressure.

The team from the University of Edinburgh made the discovery by inserting tiny mixtures of hydrogen and helium into a device, known as a diamond anvil cell, used to create very high pressures.

A laser beam was then shone on to the high-pressure mixtures, creating distinct patterns of scattered light that reveal the structure of the molecules in each sample. Using this technique, known as Raman spectroscopy, the experts found that hydrogen and helium are very unreactive, with no chemical bonds formed between them even under immense pressure.

Dr Robin Turnbull, of the university’s School of Physics and Astronomy, who led the study, said: “We hope that these results will prompt further investigations into the behaviours of elemental gas mixtures under extreme conditions.”