Hello, all. New poster here. Seems you guys are a pretty smart bunch so I wanted to ask a few questions.

I'm a writer. My writing group is experimenting with writing in genres we don't normally pursue. I've decided to try my hand at a little science fiction.

I'm working with a concept along the lines of all the conspiracy theories going around a bit back about Galileo creating a nuclear explosion when it crashed into Jupiter. Now, we all know that this cannot really happen, but after all, this is fiction, and one of my issues as a writer is overcoming my "reality handicap."

So ... my questions for any who'd like to offer up an answer, a thought, a link, whatever ...

1) Jupiter's mass, composition, etc as is prevents it from sustaining a nuclear reaction. But, in the realm of fiction, is there anything that could be thrown in to make it more believable that this could happen? (something we didn't know existed in Jupiter's atmosphere, a vastly different core temperature than we suspected, etc.) What possibilities might one use to explain how this could happen even though it defies reality?

**Also, any links anyone knows of to the most outlandish, armageddonish ideas about what effect Jupiter exploding could have on earth would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking for all here, even really woowoo theories.

2) Jupiter's radiation belt. (Keep in mind, I know next to nada about astronomy.) What would be the effects on astronauts if they went on a space walk in orbit around Jupiter? Would there be lingering radiation effects? Would they be "cooked" instantly? Would there be any issues at all? Would it be impossible?

3) Say you've got a space shuttle on a deep space mission (Jupiter, etc). All communication is lost with earth through some sort of damage. Is there any way NASA would be able to tell that the shuttle still exists? Or would they have no way of knowing whether it's been destroyed without hearing from the astronauts?

Guess those are my basic questions for now. Go ahead and laugh. I know they're pretty moronic to those more in the know, but ... whatever. Also, mods, if this is better suited to another forum, please feel free to move it.

Cheers.
Linnie

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc...r_galileo.html

http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/vi...sc&start=0

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"Oh no no no I'm a rocket man Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone." -- Sir Elton John

J Pax

Welcome to the board. It is commendable you would seek more factual information by selecting this board, albeit, not necessarily this forum.

It is a bit interesting to consider creating fictional ideas which we can debunk prior to publication. Hmmm...but that's like..."we can tell you, but then we have to shoot ourselves."

Oh well, I’ll try to help a little but I’m no scientist...

Basically, you need immense hydrogen density and temperature to get fusion to work. With enormous gravity, you get both as the pressures in the core becomes hotter and hotter as a would-be star acquires more mass which increases the total gravitational force.

So either you get more mass for Jupiter (80x more) somehow, or you change the conditions to allow nuclear reactions at low densities. The later will require you to reduce the electrical charge on the proton in hydrogen to allow it’s nuclear force to grab hold of it’s neighboring proton which releases energy. Quarks, I think, are responsible for charge formation, so, if you can dream up some kinda new quark that neutralizes electric charge you might get a quick blast.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

There are several radio dishes around the world (Arecibo, Jodrell Bank, Goldstone, etc) that have the capability of bouncing radar signals off the Shuttle at that distance.

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

It had been traveling thru space for thousands, perhaps millions of years. before it entered our solar system it began to heat up, expanding rapidly into the gas giant it had once been; to over 70 times the mass of jupiter. Our garden planet was lucky to be on the opposite side of the sun when it began to pass thru the orbital plane most of the planets and asteroids of our system
share. Jupiters luck though, was about to run out. In less that 2 weeks these 2 massive celestial bodies would collide.


far fetched yes, but still an intresting way to go about it.

This thread, Jupiter Exploding, has some crazy ideas on it!

Suprised no one has mentioned this...But blowing up Jupiter has been done. See if you can find the novel/film 2010.

The author pulled a white rabbit...used some serious alien technology.

Hey Rodman.....thats also been done lol. H G Wells, The Star.

Glen Chapman...who's read far to much science fiction for his own good

really? been done? cool ill have to read the book!

How about, the solar system passes into a galactic arm carrying FAR more interstellar hydrogen than we thought was possible, cold dark matter (grate book title), and jupiter, saturn, all the gas giants, including the sun, get a fresh 'drink' of hydrogen. everything gets larger, all the 'other' gas giants turn into brown dwarves, while Jupiter becomes our Second Sun (better title), which starts a radical co-orbit situation with well, now binary, stars. Then it can get really wierd, like earth gets flung out into space or somehow ends up in the habitable range of this new binary pair... well, not with all those brown dwarves...
Hey, BA, I think THIS is neater than the REAL universe; WOO-WOO bound am I!!!

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Feynman
>~~~~<
Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.

You forgot to mention that the author is Arthur C. Clarke, might make it easier to find.

If I remember right, the idea was to fuse part of Jupiters hydrogen all the way to iron then let it settle in the core.
Since this would increase the density of the core, it would bring the pressure near the center high enough to start fusion.

I have no idea whether this would actually work to bring the pressute high enough, but it's a lot more plausible that having Galileo trigger anything.

Wouldn't that require a core of hydrogen trapped within a hollow collapsing iron shell, or some scenario that puts the big squeeze on something that can sustain a fusion reaction? IIRC, you can't fuse iron and get a net energy gain.