Back when I was growing up, there was some debate whether Jupiter consisted only of gases, or if it had something more or less solid in the middle of it. At the time, scientists just didn't know. They had no way of seeing past the swirling vortexes of clouds that Jupiter presented to the universe.
Flash through the last few decades, and they finally came up with a way to 'see' past those clouds. NASA's Juno space probe gathered gravitational data about the planet in a variety of locations, and that data, combined with data by Galileo probe, indicates that yes, there is some solidity down in those depths.
The theory of Jupiter's creation is that it gathered vast amounts of gas and dust from what was left after the sun's creation, mainly hydrogen and helium. The more it gathered, the bigger it got, the more gravity it had, and thus the more it gathered.
This new data indicates there is a rich array of heavy elements in the rocky core of the system's biggest planet. Which suggests that Jupiter also gobbled up plenty of planetesimals (or baby planets) while it was gathering materials.
Planetesimals are space rocks spanning several miles, so larger than most of the asteroids. If they had been left alone, they might have grown up into planets. But alas, their fate was to be eaten and become just another piece of a huge planet. Just a bit like bits of gravel eaten by birds to help their digestion.
I hope those 'stones' at least gave Jupiter indigestion for a while.
But at least we now know that Jupiter has a rocky core.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-find-remains-of-baby-planets-swallowed-by-jupiter/ar-AAYHi95?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnb7Kz
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