The chemical identification and physical nature of giant planets are discussed. The phase equilibria of H2-He mixture is briefly described for these large planets

Wildt, R.

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(NASA-CR-142163) [PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF N75-18136
GIANT PLANETS] Final Technical Report,
period ending 3L Sep. 1973 (Yale Univ.) 3 p
HC $3.25 CSCL 03B Unclas
G3/90 10318
27 March 1974
Ms Beverly Hungerford
Grant Administrator
NASA
Washington, D.C. 20546 In Re: NASA Grant1 GR 07-004 -010
Dear Me Hungerford:
Enclosed are two copies of a Final Technical Rport for the
NASA Grant NGR 07-004-010 which terminated on 30 September 1973.
I regret the report ha been delayed in reaching you.
Sincerely youre
Mary S. Albee for
Rupert Wildt
cc: J. S. Warner, Director
Grant and Contract Administration
! • 4
VP ~iT
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19750010064 2020-03-22T22:57:27+00:00Z
NASA Grant NGR 07-004-010 FINAL (Submitted by letter dtd.
Final Technical 7eport 1-23-75 - addressed to Dr.
Prepared by R. Wildt Willaim E. Brunk)
Principal Investigator
27 March 1974 YALE UNVERSITY
On reaching retirement age in 1973, the principal investigator could
look back on more than forty years of effort to elucidate the physical
nature of the giant planets. It began with the chemical identification
of the prominent absorption bands in their spectra as due to hydrogen
compounds (methane and ammonia) and the recognition of hydrogen and helium
as the principal constituents of the bulk of Jupiter and Saturn. When
the Lunar Science Institute in 1972 sponsored a conference on planetary
interiors, at which the principal investigator delivered the keynote
address entitled "Hydrogen Planets and High-Pressure Physics", he had the
satisfaction to observe that the ideas he introduced decades ago are
finally accepted and continue to bear fruit. The ongoing task is to refine
the model computations of planetary interiors by ever more realistic input
data. Initially the physical assumptions had to be quite schematic: the
planets were supposed to be isothermal throughout, and in chemically non-
homogeneous bulk material the molar volumes of the components were treated
as additive. In either respect progress was made during the work performed
under this grant.
The discovery of a substantial heat flow from Jupiter's interior, by
Love and others, necessitated an appraisal of the possible modes of
internal heat transfer and the relevant physical parameters. Dr. Wendell
DeMarcus, Professor of Physics in the University of Kentucky, participated
in this work from its beginning and served as visiting professor at Yale
during the sprtng term of the 1966-67 academic year. Later Dr. Edwin V.
Bishop Joined the project, after completing his Ph.D. thesis at Yale, and
-2-
performed large-numerical computations (January 1966 - August 1969) with,
the computer at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City,
whose support is gratefully acknowledged. The final result of the discussion
was published in: Edwin V. Bishop and Wendell C. DeMarcus, Thermal Histories
of Jupiter Models, Icarus 12, 317-330, 1970.
As early as 1938 the principal investigator called attention to the
need for systematic exploration of the equations of state and phase equilibria
of the presumptive constituents of Jupiter's and Saturn's deep atmospheres
and interiors. Numerous attempts to persuade the scarce experimenters
qualified to tackle these problems had no success until the middle 1960's
when Dr. William B. Streett, Research Professor at the U.S. Military
Academy (Westpoint, N.Y.) responded favorably to the suggestion that he apply
his wide experience to the phase equilibria of mixtures of condensed gases
found in the giant planets. After long planning, including Dr. DeMarcus,
an ambitious experimental program got underway, but encountered persistent
technological road-blocks it took years to overcome. The first definitive
result was a study of the He-CH4 phase equilibrium, on which Dr. Streett
reported in the proceedings of the conference mentioned before (Lunar
Science Institute Contributions No. 89, reprinted from Physics'of the
Earth and Planetary Interiors 1, 69-77, 1972). Of fundamental importance
to the meteorology and internal circulation of the giant planets are the
phase equilibria of H2-He mixtures, which the principal investigator had
long suspected of displaying immiscibility of coexistent fluid phases.
This surmise has finally been proved by Dr. Streett up to pressures of
10 kbar and temperatures between 260 and 100* K. He is now trying to
extend this woik to the highest pressures safely attainable, because this
-3-
fluid-fluid phase separation may persist even to the limits 
of stability
of the molecular phases. (William B. Streett, Phase Equilibria 
in
Molecular Hydrogen-Helium Mixtures at High Pressures, 
Astrophysical Journal
186, 1107, 1973).
Papers published during the period of the grant by 
the principal
investigator are listed below:
Planetary Interiors, The Solar System, G. P. Kuiper, Ed. Vol. 
III,
chapter 5, 159-212, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962
Planetary Interiors, Memoires de la Societe Royaledes Sciences de Liege
VII, 15-28, 1963.
The Planet Jupiter (with H. J. Smith, E. E. Salpeter and 
A. G. W. Cameron),
Physics Today 16, 19-23, 1963.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot (with Wendell C. DeMarcus), 
Nature 209, 62, 1966.
Lectures on the Physics of the Planet Jupiter, 
Bonn Bundesministerius fUr
Wissenschaftliche Forschung, No. FB W 67-40, 10-85, 
1967.
The Outer Planets: Some Early History, Journal 
of Atmospheric Sciences 26,
795-797, 1969.
Hydrogen Planets and High-Pressure Physics, 
Physics of the Earth and
Planetary Interiors 6, 1-4, 1972.


Physical properties of giant planets

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