On the Internal Structur of Jupiter and Saturn

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Abstract
One of the authors (M.N., III, 427, 1951) has shown that the proportion of hydrogen in Jupiter is 76 per cent by mass and in Saturn 62 per cent by mass, assuming that the heavier elements are distributed uniformly throughout each planet. In the present calculations the heavier elements are assumed to be in part concentrated' in a central core and in part distributed uniformly. This relaxation of the condition of chemical homogeneity has little influence on the estimated hydrogen contents, the extreme estimates for Jupiter being 76 and 84 per cent by mass and for Saturn 62 and 69 per cent by mass. The ellipticities of the planets due to their axial rotations suggest that each planet has a central concentration of heavy elements of the order of ten times the mass of the Earth; but the possibility of chemical homogeneity is not completely excluded by the present empirical data.

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