SPACE: Jupiter’s core isn’t what we thought.

It had been thought that a colossal collision with an early planet containing half of Jupiter’s core material could have mixed up the central region of the gas giant, enough to explain its interior today.

But a new study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests its make-up is actually down to how the growing planet absorbed heavy and light materials as it formed and evolved.

Unlike what scientists once expected, the core of the largest planet in our solar system doesn’t have a sharp boundary but instead gradually blends into the surrounding layers of mostly hydrogen – a structure known as a dilute core.

So not an Earth-sized diamond?