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Old 15-April-2007, 09:34 PM
Grashtel Grashtel is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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Quote:
Originally Posted by parallaxicality View Post
I don't think my jaw muscles are working; I can't stop gaping.

Even when Arthur C Clarke came up with the idea (admittedly with unobtainium, rather than plutonium) I couldn't figure out how it could be done, since you'd have to increase Jupiter's mass by 75 times before it became a proper star.

Now this guy's saying that they're trying to do it with Saturn? Which is a third the size of Jupiter? with 75 pounds of plutonium? I'm not even sure you could make a decent dirty bomb with 75 pounds of plutonium.

It has to be a joke. Why else use Clarke's name for the new star?
Have you read the rest of the site? Its either for real or such a good parody as to be indistinguishable from the real thing.
Quote:
EDIT: Just in case I get cornered on this, I should ask: is it actually possible to create a sustained fusion reaction in the atmosphere of a gas giant?
Not unless you happen to be able to make fusion occur at far lower temperatures and pressures than is normally possible or you are able to compress the entire planet.
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