How did Jupiter's dilute core form and survive 4.5 billion years?
In plain words
A giant collision or gradual accretion of rock and ice could have produced a spread-out core. It must also have resisted being mixed away by convection ever since.
Precise statement
Determine whether Jupiter's dilute core formed by gradual heavy-element deposition during accretion or by a giant impact, and whether it survives convective erosion and double-diffusive mixing over 4.5 Gyr. An answer is a formation-plus-evolution model producing the present Z(r) and consistent with the planet's luminosity and radius.
What would settle it
Coupled formation and evolution simulations, including impact simulations with realistic equations of state, matching present Z(r).
Status in the literature
Unverified note
2024 to 2025 impact simulations (arXiv:2412.06094, arXiv:2503.23997) find giant impacts do not readily produce a lasting dilute core.