Fusion of Jupiter

[Harguinxx]

I really don't think that turn Jupiter into a fission bomb is so difficult, it depend on the concentration of hydrogen in the atmosphere, but if with a explosion big enough, the pressure wave should be enough to trigger a fusion reaction just at the side of the explosion, magnifying the effects of the first explosion and in consequence creating a chain reaction.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Harguinxx

[shoveycat]

Well, its a matter of mass, so, technically, if you drop enough bombs in it should, SHOULD, start, however, it would be so with any type of matter, not just bombs

[Sean Mirrsen]

Consider that we are currently using a nuclear bomb essentially wrapped around fusable material in order to create a fusion bomb. Even if you were to make a bomb powerful enough to incite fusion in the immediate surrounding material, unless it is powerful enough to similarly compress the whole planet, the fusion reaction will not be sustainable - as the fireball and the pressure wave expands, the pressure drops, and fusion will no longer occur - a fusion runaway is impossible.

It would be possible with an already heavily compressed material - as it happens with Nova explosions of stars, when gravity has compressed helium into such a state where adding heat increases the speed of the reaction, and the reaction adds heat - a thermal runaway. In all cases you need a force holding the fusion zone together, or sufficient force to compress the whole thing in one go - fusion is a finicky beast, it needs the right conditions to work.

[gloowa]

What the heck would a comet that big do to Earth? Was the size of that detonation something to do with a comet entering a largely hydrogen atmosophere? Or would it be just as explosive if it intersected Earth?

[Brotoro]

I really don't think that turn Jupiter into a fission bomb is so difficult, it depend on the concentration of hydrogen in the atmosphere, but if with a explosion big enough, the pressure wave should be enough to trigger a fusion reaction just at the side of the explosion, magnifying the effects of the first explosion and in consequence creating a chain reaction.

No, you can't make Jupiter explode like that. A thermonuclear bomb uses a fission primary, with enough energy output to knock down a fair-sized city, and uses that energy to cause an implosion that compresses and heats a relatively small quantity of deuterium and tritium (or tritium formed from Lithium in the bomb) to get a fusion reaction for a very brief period. Sufficient density and heating is difficult to achieve with even the deuterium and tritium, and those isotopes undergo fusion more readily than the regular hydrogen that makes up the bulk of Jupiter's atmosphere. You won't get sufficient compression and heating from an outward-moving shock wave in regular hydrogen to cause fusion.

[Harguinxx]

No, you can't make Jupiter explode like that. A thermonuclear bomb uses a fission primary, with enough energy output to knock down a fair-sized city, and uses that energy to cause an implosion that compresses and heats a relatively small quantity of deuterium and tritium (or tritium formed from Lithium in the bomb) to get a fusion reaction for a very brief period. Sufficient density and heating is difficult to achieve with even the deuterium and tritium, and those isotopes undergo fusion more readily than the regular hydrogen that makes up the bulk of Jupiter's atmosphere. You won't get sufficient compression and heating from an outward-moving shock wave in regular hydrogen to cause fusion.

I'm aware of that, but even at the core, with an explosion big enough???

[Kryten]

Putting enough energy into Jupiter to make a significant proportion of the atmosphere fuse would simply blow it to bits.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Putting enough energy into Jupiter to make a significant proportion of the atmosphere fuse would simply blow it to bits.

Alternatively, putting enough energy into it from all sides at once would just compress it to about the size of Earth, at which point it might all fuse at once. The initial explosion (imparting energy) would toss its moons out into space like frag grenade shrapnel. The follow-up explosion would boil Mars, cook most of Earth, vaporize or toss away half of the asteroid belt, and strip the rings and a lot of the atmosphere from Saturn - assuming those planets are reasonably nearby on their orbits, and not on the other side of the system.

There's no simple way to fuse Jupiter.

You could perhaps toss an artificial fusion reactor into Jupiter though. Would make one hell of a powerstation.

[Seret]

I'm aware of that, but even at the core, with an explosion big enough???

You would want an implosion, not an explosion. Atoms normally repel each other at short distances, to achieve fusion you need to give them tons of energy and squeeze them together to overcome this and get them to fuse.

[Morrigi]

Can we stop mutilating physics, please? No, you cannot initiate nuclear fusion by detonating a nuclear weapon in Jupiter's atmosphere. Reality Does Not Work That Way.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Can we stop mutilating physics, please? No, you cannot initiate nuclear fusion by detonating a nuclear weapon in Jupiter's atmosphere. Reality Does Not Work That Way.

Correction: Not continuous, or sustained nuclear fusion, and definitely not a runaway fusion reaction that engulfs the whole planet (somehow without destroying it). But it is still possible - well, theoretically - with a certain design of a clustered nuclear bomb - ironically, a nuclear fusion bomb - to create a small pocket of fusion in the hydrogen atmosphere. But all it'd be useful for would be a... well, a very unconventional approach to boosting a nuclear blast, for blowing a hole in Jupiter's atmosphere.

[Morrigi]

Correction: Not continuous, or sustained nuclear fusion, and definitely not a runaway fusion reaction that engulfs the whole planet (somehow without destroying it). But it is still possible - well, theoretically - with a certain design of a clustered nuclear bomb - ironically, a nuclear fusion bomb - to create a small pocket of fusion in the hydrogen atmosphere. But all it'd be useful for would be a... well, a very unconventional approach to boosting a nuclear blast, for blowing a hole in Jupiter's atmosphere.

Well yes. Point is, it would have no effect on anything, really.

[thereaverofdarkness]

Starting fusion in Jupiter won't make it keep fusing, at least not like a star. Jupiter might be doing a little bit of fusion already, but it's not enough to be classed as a brown dwarf. It is too far below the threshhold for a bit more heat to bring it over, if the heat even could do that.

[Deadpangod3]

http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/impact.cgi?latitude=&longitude=&LocationSelect=3&CraterSelect=0&diam=50&diameterUnits=2&pdens=&pdens_select=8000&vel=50&velocityUnits=1θ=45&wdepth=&wdepthUnits=1&tdens=2500

O.O

Keep ALL 50 km asteroids AWAY from Jeb, or he will remove Kerbins rotation...

Edit: http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/impact.cgi?latitude=&longitude=&LocationSelect=3&CraterSelect=0&diam=500&diameterUnits=2&pdens=&pdens_select=8000&vel=500&velocityUnits=1θ=45&wdepth=500&wdepthUnits=1&tdens=2500 o.o I melted almost half the earth...

Edit2: http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/impact.cgi?latitude=&longitude=&LocationSelect=3&CraterSelect=0&diam=1000&diameterUnits=2&pdens=&pdens_select=8000&vel=800&velocityUnits=1θ=45&wdepth=500&wdepthUnits=1&tdens=2500 whoops, I destroyed the earth, entirely...

Edited September 4, 2013 by Deadpangod3

[magnemoe]

http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/impact.cgi?latitude=&longitude=&LocationSelect=3&CraterSelect=0&diam=50&diameterUnits=2&pdens=&pdens_select=8000&vel=50&velocityUnits=1θ=45&wdepth=&wdepthUnits=1&tdens=2500

O.O

Keep ALL 50 km asteroids AWAY from Jeb, or he will remove Kerbins rotation...

Edit: http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/impact.cgi?latitude=&longitude=&LocationSelect=3&CraterSelect=0&diam=500&diameterUnits=2&pdens=&pdens_select=8000&vel=500&velocityUnits=1θ=45&wdepth=500&wdepthUnits=1&tdens=2500 o.o I melted almost half the earth...

Edit2: http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/impact.cgi?latitude=&longitude=&LocationSelect=3&CraterSelect=0&diam=1000&diameterUnits=2&pdens=&pdens_select=8000&vel=800&velocityUnits=1θ=45&wdepth=500&wdepthUnits=1&tdens=2500 whoops, I destroyed the earth, entirely...

http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/cgi-bin/impact.cgi

This is the link for setting up your own impacts. Have fun and don't wreck anything.

Anybody has data for shoemaker levy? as I understand it would hurt far more then the dinosaur killer.