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T. C. Owen (University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy), P. Mahaffy, H. B. Niemann (Goddard Space Flight Center, Laboratory for Atmospheres), S. Atreya, T. Donahue (University of Michigan, Atmospheric Oceanic \& Space Science), A. Bar-Nun (Tel-Aviv University, Dept of Geophysics \& Planetary Sci), I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley, Dept of Astronomy)
Carbon and sulfur are enriched by 3x the solar abundance relative to hydrogen in Jupiter’s atmosphere (Niemann et al. J.G.R. 103, 22831-22846 [1998]). This enrichment must have occurred through the delivery of condensed matter to Jupiter, as planetesimals that may have accreted into a massive core and that certainly dissolved in the forming planet’s gaseous envelope. As the process of calibrating the Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer continues, we have found that Ar, Kr and Xe exhibit the same enrichment as carbon and sulfur in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Independent measurements of the attetuation of the probe signal by ammonia reveal a similar enrichment for nitrogen (Folkner et al. J.G. R. 103, 22847-22856 [1998]). There is no known solid material in the solar system in which N, Ar, Xe, and Kr exhibit solar abundances relative to C and S. However, laboratory experiments indicate that ice forming at temperatures below ~30 K could trap all of these elements in their original proportions. We will discuss the implications of this result for the formation of giant and supergiant planets.