Curse

Kuldebar Valiturus · Apr 11, 2007, 08:02 AM // 08:02

Now this is an interesting and well explained observation on a fairly recent development in our solar system.

Quote:

When NASA announced its “Galileo into Jupiter” option, among those to publish immediate, serious objections (and later to repeat them on “Coast to Coast AM”) was an engineer named Jacco van der Worp. Van der Worp claimed that, plunging into Jupiter’s deep and increasingly dense atmosphere, the on-board Galileo electrical power supply – a set of 144 plutonium-238 fuel pellets, arrayed in two large canister devices called “RTGs” (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators – see image and schematic, below) – would ultimately “implode”; that the plutonium Galileo carried would ultimately collapse in upon itself under the enormous pressures of Jupiter’s overwhelming atmosphere —Triggering a runaway nuclear explosion!

The curious thing is that Jupiter is considered by many to be an "undeveloped" star, as portrayed in Arthur C. Clarke's 2010 and that this latest NASA action seems to play into the idea of a possible jumpstart into the sun club.

*Darcy* · Apr 11, 2007, 01:42 PM // 13:42

The Galileo was dropped into Jupiter's atmosphere in 2003. It's now 2007. Thus the reason no one has heard anymore from van der Worp.

Here is a link to wikipedia's Jupiter page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter

Kuldebar Valiturus · Apr 12, 2007, 07:19 AM // 07:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darcy

The Galileo was dropped into Jupiter's atmosphere in 2003...

Yes, and the debate over the appearance of the "atmospheric spot" appearing a month after our plutonium present to Jupiter still rages on.

Besides most of the interesting facts usually don't get out until years later, right?

But, perhaps the point is simply that we shouldn't be the neighborhood litterbugs, at least until we meet our new neighbors.

Mohnzh · Apr 12, 2007, 02:47 PM // 14:47

Maybe I'm confused, but doesn't everyone introduce themselves to their neighbors by sending them large packets of plutonium that is expected to undergo fusion upon delivery? I thought that was just curteous...

Cataclysm · Apr 13, 2007, 12:25 AM // 00:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mohnzh

Maybe I'm confused, but doesn't everyone introduce themselves to their neighbors by sending them large packets of plutonium that is expected to undergo fusion upon delivery? I thought that was just curteous...

It is, it's how I greet all my new neighbors. Of course, they always get hit by terrorists hours later.

*Darcy* · Apr 13, 2007, 01:59 AM // 01:59

The new atmospheric spot showed up in the year 2000, three years before Galileo impacted.

Kuldebar Valiturus · Apr 14, 2007, 02:37 AM // 02:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darcy

The new atmospheric spot showed up in the year 2000, three years before Galileo impacted.

Spots occasionally appear on Jupiter, and generally garner a lot of formal scientific scrutiny. In this case, this specific "spot" in particular coincides with our neighborly "gift" and the time it would have taken to reach crush depths and have the spreading effect become visible. This particular observation was made on October 19th, 2003.

Again, it's like a kid playing ball in the house. And something gets broken. The kid, even though innocent, may not wish to advertise the fact that he'd been playing ball in the house.

Quote:

Fast-forward the film to almost one month later … October 19, 2003. On that night, an amateur astronomer in Belgium, Olivier Meeckers, secured a remarkable composite “Webcam” image of Jupiter through a small refracting telescope (inverted, as in a telescopic view, below). On the image, a dark black “splotch” showed up on the southern edge of Jupiter’s well-known “North Equatorial Belt,” trailing a fainter “tail” southwest (image center).