Cassini visits Saturn

[Mannlicher]

the controversy over Cassini's Plutonium power was all political, there was Zero scientific basis for the kerfuffle.

[AJ Dual]

Does anyone else remember the conspiracy theorists who believed that the Plutonium in Galileo's RTG's were going to stellate (turn into a star) Jupiter? 

https://phys.org/news/2014-02-jupiter-star.html

[TommyGunn]

the controversy over Cassini's Plutonium power was all political, there was Zero scientific basis for the kerfuffle.

Since when is it required that Sturmandrung over radioactive isotopes have any actual scientific basis?
It's RADIOACTIVE!!!!   OMG!   IT WILL KILL EVERYTHING! IT WILL DESTROY THE WHOLE UNIVERSE!!!

[230RN]

Well, I gotta laugh... not that I'm actually concerned about "stellating" Jupiter or Saturn.

I mean, scientists thought the extra neutron in Lithium-7 didn't matter, either.  See Castle Bravo.

And according to what I read, there are only two known stellar fusion reactions, the CNO (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) cycle, and the proton-proton (deuterium) reaction.




Note the "known."  

I'm not signing this one so nobody will accuse me of being actually paranoid, when it's simply that I'm amused by the know-it-all arrogance of a lot of scientists.

[AJ Dual]

Well, I gotta laugh... not that I'm actually concerned about "stellating" Jupiter or Saturn.

I mean, scientists thought the extra neutron in Lithium-7 didn't matter, either.  See Castle Bravo.

And according to what I read, there are only two known stellar fusion reactions, the CNO (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) cycle, and the proton-proton (deuterium) reaction.




Note the "known."  

I'm not signing this one so nobody will accuse me of being actually paranoid, when it's simply that I'm amused by the know-it-all arrogance of a lot of scientists.

Yeah, but the temperature ranges and pressures needed for fusion are well known, and there's lower limits even for the "trick" forms of fusion. Or the isotopes etc. needed for the "trick" forms of fusion don't exist in sufficient abundance in nature.  And of course the Plutonium in an RTG wouldn't ever go critical during entry, it'll just burn up and erode away. And Pu 238 that's used in RTG's is the wrong kind for a bomb, you need Pu 239 for that. And Pu 239 is no good for RTG's.

And of course, Shoemaker-Levy smacked Jupiter harder than the entire world's nuclear arsenal detonated at once, and did that a dozen-odd times to boot. And nothing happened other than some black cloudy spots that dispersed in a few days.

Interesting fact, in terms of diameter/size, Jupiter is about as "big" as planets, even brown dwarfs, and the smallest M class red dwarf stars.  Add about 8x Jupiter masses, and it'll be on the lower threshold for a brown dwarf, but still be roughly the same diameter.  Add 80x Jupiter's mass in one spot, and you'll get a red dwarf star, but any of these objects won't be much more than 10% larger in volume max.

Jupiter is already crushing it's interior into liquid/metallic hydrogen, so when you imagine the proverbial "5lbs of crap in a 3lb sack" scenario of having 8x to 80X of Jupiter's mass all stuffed in close to the same volume, and on the high end of that you've got a star undergoing fusion, you realize how hot and dense the insides of stars are. And why the photons produced by the fusion take anywhere from 4000 to 1,000,000 (free mean path for the photons means there's going to be a statistical spread...) years to escape into space.

[230RN]

Well, there's no logical way to argue that we know all the possibilities, is all I'm saying.  At least not until sample N = population n.

https://gizadeathstar.com/2012/07/they-just-cant-seem-to-get-lithium-7-right/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Castle#Test_execution

Castle Bravo is only my current favorite example of where scientific dogma trumps finding out the True State Of Affairs.  The whole phlogiston theory, with its rather rancorous arguments, is another one, though it is now passé.

Note I'm not saying that I fear(ed) igniting Saturn's atmosphere, just that we don't know for sure that it won't due to some bizarre unknown, unconsidered "Holy Sh t" reaction process.

Ahem, koff-koff, as in the Castle Bravo test, even though one scientist advanced the possibility that the reaction might "go big."

Well, son of a bitch !  It did !

I believe there was concern about the Trinity test "igniting" the atmosphere, and they rechecked their assumptions and went ahead with the test.  Not without a little brow-wiping, I'll wager.

Let's face it.  There's a reason they call them.... "tests."

Terry "not a conspiracy theorist, but merely an amused observer of scientific antics," 230RN, :D