[AZ-Observing] Re: Jupiter
- From: George Barber <gbarber@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 10:09:25 -0700
For question 1:
Fire is the combination of an element or compound with oxygen. In this
case, you are thinking of either hydrogen being burned to form water, or
maybe the combustion of methane. For either of these, the key is oxygen.
Jupiter does not possess free oxygen in its atmosphere like Earth does.
Therefore, no "burning" can take place. In fact, if you wanted to have a
fire on Jupiter, you would bring along a bottle of oxygen.
For number 2:
Jupiter is a mixture of various gases and ices, like ammonia ice, water
ice, etc.. This is what helps create the cloud features we see on its
surface. There are probably a lot of people who could explain this better
than I, but these various substances more than likely "stratify", like
clouds in our own atmosphere. An object plowing through these layers would
certainly disrupt them. It wouldn't really be an combustion-type
"explosion". Instead, there would be energy released from the tremendous
friction generated - just like a meteor coming into our atmosphere.
Anyway, there's my $.02 worth.
George
"Mike Loftus"
<mikeloftus@xxxxxxxxx> To:
az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent by: cc:
az-observing-bounce@fr Subject: [AZ-Observing]
Jupiter
eelists.org
06/07/2004 09:52 AM
Please respond to
az-observing
A friend of mine in Prescott wrote and asked the following questions.
Would
anyone care to elaborate?
Mike
I have always been told that Jupiter is a giant ball of gas that is
primarily hydrogen.
1. Why don't the immense lightening bolts that occur on Jupiter ignite the
planet?
2. Since Jupiter is a "gas ball", why did the comet (string of pearls)
make
such a huge visible explosive impact when it hit the "surface". There is
no surface, just gas!
Dave
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