Where is Jupiter's Rocky Surface?

The smaller planets of our solar system have solid rocky surfaces, and our Sun looks like it has a liquid rock (magma) surface. But Jupiter, unlike the Sun and the smaller planets, appears to have a large and diffuse core. There does not seem to be any rocky surface under the cloud cover of Jupiter.

This is odd, because Jupiter has the appearance of being on its way to become a brown dwarf star. It may never become a brown dwarf, but it could become one if it grew larger. However, to become a star, it would necessarily have to produce the same sort of liquid surface that our Sun has. Where would the minerals come from?

Jupiter's lack of a rocky surface is also in conflict with the idea that gas giants once had a rocky surface, and that they became gas giants through venting of their interior atmospheres. If Jupiter had a solid rock surface, where has it gone?

It appears as if the rocky surface presumed to have existed before Jupiter became a gas giant has disappeared only to necessarily reappear should Jupiter one day become a brown dwarf. The rocky surface of Jupiter is hiding somewhere.

The answer to this mystery is likely to be found in the thick atmosphere of Jupiter. There is simply no other place for the rocky surface of Jupiter to be hiding. If Jupiter had a rocky surface in a distant past and needs to produce a rocky surface in the event of it turning into a brown dwarf, then the missing minerals must be found in Jupiter's atmosphere.

A highly corrosive atmosphere, such as the one we know to exist on Venus, a planet on its way to become a gas planet, has eaten up the entire rocky shell of Jupiter. Gas planets consume their shells so that no rocky surface remain. All the minerals that formed Jupiter's rocky surface have been mixed into Jupiter's atmosphere, and this is how things will remain as long as Jupiter stays relatively cool.

However, if Jupiter were to heat up enough to become a brown dwarf, the minerals of its atmosphere would recombine. A thin film of liquid rock would form towards the top of its atmosphere. Jupiter would again have a rocky surface. It would be a star with a magma surface just like our Sun.

Jupiter

By NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester), Public Domain, Link