I was thinking of the hypothetical possibility of a human-made probe to fly thru a Jupiter-like planet and come out the other side?

I guess the first thing to take in account is if gas planet has a solid or liquid core. I guess inside a planet as massive as Jupiter the pressure must be so great the gas would be liquid or even solid at the center. I’m not sure about the physics of this.

I guess any kind of machine that travels inside one of these planets would have to stand great pressures and of course the enormous gravity of the planet itself. Anyone have any theories about the feasibility of this?

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FUTURE PIG

Don't be fooled by the terms liquid layers, ice and watery areas, liquid hydrogen and metallic hydrogen


Just because it's made of Gas doesn't mean it's a simple journey, think of our Sun ( it's also a ball of gas )

As you dive in deeper into somewhere like Jupiter the gravity is 3 times stronger, temperatures go from normal temps where a craft would survive up to incredible levels of 4,500 K and up to 11,000 K . Then we have our normal 1 bar pressure on Earth rising to 10, 500, and even 10 Million bars.

Nothing will live

A comet once tried to do it...

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Yes but we all know that comets never prepare properly for any journey they take. I mean look at the amount of times they forget to put on the sunscreen when they go near the sun......

Nothing short of shielding on a Death Star battlestations can make it through.

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NCC 2000 - USS Excelsior. Commanded by captain Hikaru Sulu.

If it was flying through the outer layers, it might have a chance. They aren't very dense. But as for going straight through the middle, not a chance. The temperatures and pressures inside the core are very high, plus the hydrogen becomes liquid and metallic.

It wouldn´t have a chance, even if the gas was only as dense as Earth atmosphere. There´s no chance of doing that. It would be easier sending a probe through the Earth´s core.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

I believe it would be possible to fathom deep (but not too deep) layers of Jupiter´s atmosphere with some kind of low speed aerodynamic vehicle. It can´t be done by an object coming from space.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

There was a movie not too long ago where these people in a space ship go through the Sun to emerge on the other side!!! #-o

Neither do I remember the exact reasons why they do it nor do I remember the name of this movie.

Thanks everybody for clarifying that for me! I see a straight side-to-side fly is impossible.

Another approach:

How about a probe or ship that was orbiting around the planet and made a soft entry in the atmosphere (in a similar way space shuttles do re-entry) and then it went flying spirals around the planet upper atmosphere, going deeper and deeper with each pass...

How long would the ship survive as it enters more dense layers of gas?
Could it go deep enough into the gas planet (even if it can’t reach too close to the core) as to collect data about the composition of the gas and other environmental conditions?

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FUTURE PIG

Hmm, this reminds me of Sephiroth's Supernova summons in Final Fantasy 7; its bad astronomy, but still neat to see the asteroid punch a hole through Jupiter. The swelling Sun destroying the inner planets is fun too; wish the Playstation could do better graphics though.

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Think of a submarine. As you go down into the Jovian atmosphere pressure gets higher and higher, until you finally get crunched. You wouldn´t go very far down deep. An object solid enough to withstand the pressures of the Jovian atmosphere to significant depths would probably be too massive to be sent there from Earth.

Writers as Arthur Clarke have proposed balloon-like vehicles to get samples from the top layers of the Jovian atmosphere.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart