Jupi-Tar?

Among the incomprehensible titles of most papers in the Astrophysical Journal, this one stood out: “Jupiter Formed with More Tar than Ice.”¹  Looking at Galileo spacecraft data for oxygen abundance and other things, Katharina Lodders was led to propose the following model:

Carbonaceous matter, which has high sticking probabilities, was the agent that sped up accumulation of solid matter of proto-Jupiter.  This led to runaway accretion of the planet.  Major consequences of this scenario are that the water ice condensation front (the snow line) typically placed near 5.2 AU in solar nebula models must be replaced by a carbonaceous condensation/evaporation front (the “tar line”) and that the snow line is located farther out in the solar nebula.

Update 12/09/2004: A press release from Washington University in St. Louis described this new theory as “Tar and muck and everything yuck.”

¹Katharina Lodders, “Jupiter Formed With More Tar than Ice,” Astrophysical Journal 611:587-597, 2004 August 10.

This sounds like a pretty drastic revision to textbook models of planet formation and dating, so we’ll have to wait and see if she garners support for the idea that Brer Jupiter is a giant tar-baby.  The textbook artists already are reduced to drawing toys (see 08/06/2004 headline).  Now do they need to draw Uncle Remus folk tales?  If so, the results will be no less plausible than today’s naturalistic just-so stories of planetary evolution.