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Jupiter is a cannibalistic planet, and its entrails are full of the remains of other ‘baby’ worlds that the giant gobbled up as it got bigger and bigger. That is the main conclusion of a study published in ‘Astronomy & Astrophysics’ by a team of 16 researchers from eight different countries. A team that, for the first time, has managed to get a clear view of what lies under the dense outer atmosphere of the giant planet in the Solar System.
Until now, Jupiter it had revealed very little to scientists about its inner workings. Telescopes have captured thousands of pictures of the immense vortices and smudges that dot its upper atmosphere, but those same storms, some larger than Earth, have acted like an impenetrable barrier, preventing us from seeing what lies below.