Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Could Humans Detonate the Sun?


A Russian scientist has advanced a theory that we could indeed "nova" the sun utilizing thermonuclear weapons (nod to Next Big Future). This would require new technology to enable delivery of the warhead deep into the sun, but given the pace of technological development it's not outside the realm of possibility within 50 years or less.

I'm not competent to judge the soundness of his science, but I am bit skeptical. One reason is that objects of significant size traveling at great speeds and therefore delivering massive amounts of energy impact the sun on a semi-frequent basis and as far as we now haven't produced any catastrophic results.

A decent size asteroid smacking into the sun would likely produce energies orders of magnitude greater than a current day thermonuclear detonation. Additionally, one composed substantially of typical metals such as iron/nickel would likely penetrate a reasonable distance into the sun before dissipating.

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