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Originally Posted by _-Gunslinger-_
The question is that if you introduced unstable plutonium into the sun would it A) Cause a nuclear FISSION reaction? and B) Would the ensuing explosion desabalise the suns carfully balanced fusion?
The answer to A is yes it would. The sun has the heat and required pressure to cause plutonium to go into super-critical mass. B is still up to speculation as no one has ever been able (or even tried to my knowledge) to get plutonium into the sun. I would think that the sun WOULD go into supernova. Seeing as fusion reactions are very volitile, my guess would be that it would destabalyze the reaction. Proof of how unstable the fusion reaction is would be solar flares, and sun spots. Solarflares are an excess of energy and sun spots are the lack there of. BLAH BLAH BLAH
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Stars 101
The sun is big. How big? The commonly quoted figure is that about 1,300,000 Earths could fit inside the sun. Now tell me, how do you figure that detonating a nuclear weapon on the sun would even remotely affect it? If the sun is so unstable that it can't stand a trifling little explosion, then too bad for us. All it would take is the collision of a sizeable cosmic body to make the thing go boom. But things like comets DO hit the sun, and with considerable force I might add.
Another good example are the solar flares you just mentioned. These things are huge! They're larger than planets and flare out across thousands of miles. A nuclear explosion is a fart compared to the energy of a solar flare. A single flareup can disrupt satellite communications here on Earth for crying out loud. If the sun can handle numerous solar flares on the surface, I'm pretty sure a nuke will be a welcome respite.
Anyway, back to the question. Yes, nuclear weapons save lives. No one doubts the importance of the atomic bombs in saving American lives in World War II. No one doubts the power of nuclear deterance. And no one doubts that world leaders not only understand the power of nuclear weapons, but understand that their use would be catastrophic. However, why there is still concern about nuclear weapons is the potential of terrorists acquiring such devices. They have no qualms of detonating one, and analysts note that there is a significant chance of terrorists using a nuclear device within the decade.
2004-09-13, 04:07 PM
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