Don’t get deceived by their huge size like that of Jupiter. The gravititional strength of all the 14 known gas giant planets outside our solar system is surprisingly found to be much closer to that of Earth! — and not as intense as that of Jupiter’s.
Yes, it is beyond our solar system, astrophysicists have accurately measured the surface gravity of all the known gas giant planets.
Hats off to Dr. John Southworth, Dr. Peter Wheatley and Giles Sams of the University of Warwick for creating a new simpler and accurate method, which is capable of deducing the surface gravity of the gas giants.
The researchers have used a technique, which is not just simpler but is also ten times more accurate compared to an older method that could only make a rough estimate for just one of the gas giants - HD 209458.
Thus, it is only such new techniques and other efforts on the part of the astrophysicists that are providing us with the least expected statistics, which would otherwise imprint an obvious calculation in our minds - as for example, it is never normal to predict the gravitational strength of a Jupiter-sized planet to be similar to that of earth!
Photo: Physorg
