Re: Ben Bova's Jupiter
Hi Guys
Ben Bova's scenario is from speculations by Isaac Asimov in the 1960s, so any arguments are with Ike...
I think the 70,000 km down is a mis-type somewhere since Jove's radius is only 71,500 km. 7,000 km, maybe?
From memory I think Bova has the water come from comet infall over Jove's history. It must float on top of the metallic hydrogen layers, which are denser than water since Jove has an average density of 1.34.
There's nothing inherently wrong with the idea, but Jupiter gets REALLY hot very quickly with depth, so I think his scenario is a bit too cool.
Uranus and Neptune might have liquid water layers though.
Adam