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Do gas giant planets have a solid smaller core in them or are they just gas?

April 26, 2017Astronomy Gas giant physical planets sciences smaller solid

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Do gas giant planets have a solid smaller core in them or are they just gas?

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There is a solid core at the centre of the gas giants. The heavy impurities in the planet “sink to the bottom”, but the pressures in a gas giant are so great that even most things that we call gasses become solids. Hydrogen becomes a metallic liquid and produces Jupiter’s massive magnetic field.

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They are only gas. However, some of the gas is so dense, it seems solid. A gas giant first formed out of a cloud of gas. The cloud has very little gravity. But as time goes by, more air molecules build up. Eventually the gravity gets stronger, and it becomes a planet.