Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/s29/3/4/solution

A qualitative sketch has molecular hydrogen/helium outside, increasing pressure into a conducting metallic-hydrogen-rich interior, and centrally enhanced heavy elements, possibly distributed rather than confined to a sharp solid core. Saturn's lower mass produces different pressure/temperature transitions and a larger relative role for central concentration. Both can have compositional gradients and helium separation; the moment alone does not decide whether any boundary is sharp.
Figure 1.
Moment-of-inertia benchmarks and qualitative giant-planet interior structures
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