franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) (03/20/88)
[The article I am following up on was posted only to sci.physics, with followup to sci.misc and sci.space. This makes no sense; it means the original article appears in sci.physics, whose readers see no more on the subject, while the readers of sci.misc and sci.space get to see the followups coming out of the blue. I have submitted this article to all three newsgroups, with followup to sci.physics only.] In article <5230@uwmcsd1.UUCP> markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Mark William Hopkins) writes: >In discussing the movie 2010 with someone, I came across what may be the >boldest engineering project ever imagined: to create a new star. It isn't. Putting a Dyson sphere around a galaxy, to name one example, is much more ambitious. (Followups on this subject should be to sci.space.) >I would like someone who is qualified to tell me what would happen if, say, >1000 H-Bombs were sent into Jupiter and simultaneously detonated. ... >If the interior is mostly Hydrogen then the reaction would sustain itself >thereby creating a new star. No. If Jupiter were dense enough to sustain a fusion reaction, there would be one going on, and it would already be a star. If you blow up a bunch of H-bombs there, you will get a little extra yield from setting off (some of) the nearby hydrogen, but it will fizzle out. In the extreme case, if you set off enough bombs scattered around the planet (probably at least on the order of a trillion), you could get the planet to blow up; but still no star. Try reading the book. I'm not sure Clarke's suggestion could be made to work, but it's a lot more plausible than just setting off a lot of H-bombs. -- Frank Adams ihnp4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka Ashton-Tate 52 Oakland Ave North E. Hartford, CT 06108