question about Jupiter?

[Myron Mumbles]

Ok so Jupiter is a gas giant right? Does this mean that it does not have a solid surface? I.E. If we sent a rocket to Jupiter does this mean it would be impossible to land on the surface and walk on the surface of jupiter? If so what would happen if one tried? would they just fall through layers of gas and end up in the core of the planet?

[Michael Steen]

Yes, it has no solid surface. It's gas almost all the way down, but gradually getting denser and denser as you descend. At some point (with no sharp transition boundary), the gas becomes more liquid, and then the tremendous pressure converts it into metallic hydrogen. This is thought to be the source of Jupiter's tremendous magnetic fields.
Long long before you got to the metallic hydrogen level, however, you'd be crushed into fragments by the awesome pressure of Jupiter's atmosphere.
Below the metallic hydrogen there is probably a rocky and metallic core about the size of Earth, but that center has got to be one of the most inaccessible places in the solar system.