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This scattered nucleus extends to 60% of Saturn’s radius — a tremendous leap from 10% to 20% of the radius of a planet that a traditional nucleus would take.
One of the wildest aspects of the research is that the findings did not come from measuring the core directly, something we could never do. Instead, Mankovich and Fuller first turned to seismographic data on Saturn’s rings collected by NASA’s Cassini mission, which explored Saturn’s system from 2004 to 2017.
“Saturn basically plays like a bell at all times,” Mankovich says. As the nucleus swings, it creates gravitational perturbations that affect the surrounding rings, creating subtle “waves” that can be measured. While the core of the planet was oscillating, Cassini was able to study Saturn’s C ring (the second ring block on the planet) and measure the small gravitational “ring” caused by the nucleus.
Mankovich and Fuller analyzed the data and created a model for the structure of Saturn that would explain these seismographic waves – and the result is a vague one. “This research is so far the only direct evidence of a scattered structure based on a fluid planet,” Mankovich says.
Mankovich and Fuller believe that the reason why structures work is that rocks and ice near the center of Saturn are soluble in hydrogen so that the nucleus acts as a fluid rather than a solid. Their model suggests that Saturn’s scattered nucleus contains rocks and ice that is more than 17 times the mass of the entire Earth, so a large amount of material is working.
A nuclear diffusion can have some major implications for the operation of Saturn. Most significantly, it would stabilize a part of the interior against convective heat, otherwise Saturn’s interior would return turbulently. In fact, this stabilizing effect creates waves of internal gravity that affect Saturn’s rings. Moreover, the scattered nucleus would explain why Saturn’s surface temperatures are higher than what traditional convective models would suggest.
Still, Mankovich acknowledges that the model is limited in some important ways. He can’t explain what scientists have seen about Saturn’s magnetic field because it’s a weird way (e.g., it shows near-perfect symmetry on its axis, which is unusual). He and Fuller hope that future research can narrow the interior more closely and that scientists can shed light on how the planet’s core can affect its magnetic field.
They also hope that NASA’s Juno mission will reveal a similar scattered core within Jupiter. This would go a long way in creating huge gradients when the process of creating giant planets, compared to clean, strong nuclei. Some research using gravity data collected by Juno he seems to support this idea as well.
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