Posted on 04/10/2007 10:35:33 PM PDT by grundle
On September 21, 2003 NASA deliberately directed its amazing, still-functioning Galileo spacecraft to make one final, 108,000 mph suicidal plunge into Jupiter’s vast atmosphere.
The intent of this unfortunate decision was to protect Europa, one of those Jovian moons.
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... would ultimately “implode”; that the plutonium Galileo carried would ultimately collapse in upon itself under the enormous pressures of Jupiter’s overwhelming atmosphere—
As the capsules continue to fall deeper through the primarily hydrogen atmosphere, the surrounding pressure/density continues to rise, to thousands of times Earth’s surface density and pressure. The capsules are now falling at a constant rate, approximately one mile per hour
At this ultra-slow “terminal velocity,” it takes the Galileo plutonium-238 capsules on the order of 700 hours – a month! to fall to a depth inside Jupiter (~700 miles below the visible clouds) where the outside pressure of the surrounding liquid hydrogen literally crushes the plutonium capsules into a supercritical state—
At this point, one of the capsules randomly implodes … and initiates, via the resulting shockwave and intense neutron shower, a runaway nuclear chain reaction in all the other surviving capsules, now spread in a spherical falling “cloud” a few tens of miles across ~700 miles below Jupiter’s visible “surface.” The resulting cascade nuclear detonation of all the surviving capsules totals several tens of kilotons ….
The deliberate destruction of Galileo to “save” Europa, and the sudden appearance of “a mysterious dark splotch” on Jupiter just one month later -- precisely time enough to get the entering plutonium down to a depth where it could catastrophically implode – is truly a remarkable “coincidence.”
(Excerpt) Read more at enterprisemission.com ...
Damn, now the Jovians are going to take us to court and sue us for damages. Then the ACLU will ask for reparations. Some liberal judge will award them a big settlement and court costs. This sucks.
Oops, sorry, I didn’t really read your list - looks complete.
4 AM bump! ;-)
I see you guys are posting a lot of Art Bell stuff lately.
Do you think it’s a good idea to post speculation that is wrong 99.9% of the time? I call that lying.
Richard Hoagland has never been right about anything. The last sure thing I heard him telling us all about was that a “major event” was going to happen the space shuttle and only he knew what but he could never tell. Hours later he told making him a liar again.
He said it a top inside NASA engineer had discovered a plan to shut the shuttles engines off early and heavily damage the shuttle. The plan was by NASA insiders so they could scrap the shuttle and make a new craft for the moon landings.
This was of course a total lie just like the rest.
Why post lies on FR?
If we can’t call Hoagland a liar that what does the word mean?
Oh man! Did you have to do that this late? Now I won’t be able to turn the light out!
I have long thought that there might be a market for a real late night science oriented show. One with hosts that have the background to critically challenge the claims of the guests. Art may be a nice guy, and a ham radio operator and all that, but once things get past sunspots, log periodic arrays, propagation characteristics on 20 meters, the happenings in downtown Manila, or how his cat “sees” things, he folds like a cheap suit. All very entertaining if you’re looking for the next diesel stop, but hardly truly informative. Bill Wattenberg is better, but even Bill gets bogged down explaining the basics for the millionth time. There is one word you will never hear on Coast to Coast and that is “preposterous”. Phillip Plait aka the Bad Astronomer won’t debate Hoagland because he (Hoagland) quickly degenerates into non rigorous methods of debate like raising his voice, interjecting false arguments, and evading the question amongst other techniques at hiding his ignorance, and I don’ blame Plait one bit. There is little to be gained by besting a fool.
No wonder Jupiter seems brighter than usual.
This is silly. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of nuclear physics knows that only odd number nuclides can have the possibility to fission at thermal energies (which is the case here). Pu-239 is good, but Pu-238 is not.
Good conspiracy theories make good reading. Even Von Daniken’s first book was fun. The bad thing is when people believe this nonsense.
That is a real picture, is it?
Does she look like that close-up?
If there’s one celestial orb on which a nuclear explosion would not be noticed, it’s Jupiter. What difference would it make other than with the greenies?
He’s gotta be a legitimate scientist, because it’s apparent that he thinks GW Bush is changing the atmosphere on Jupiter.
Gigantic steaming pile. The plutonium used in Galileo is the 238 isomer, not the 239 isomer. Pu-238 IS NOT FISSIONABLE!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.