23 replies to this topic

[KansukeKojima]

Assuming the nuke could actually make it there without being destroyed... I can imagine it would be fairly catastropic.... probably not as large as a super-nova but I imagine we would be screwed...

[serverph]

i would think a nuke would not even make a dent on our sun. perhaps it will just result in a simple solar flare, which is quite normal for the sun. let's consider the size of the sun, as compared to the planets which revolve around it like earth, and how miniscule a nuke would look like.

[DeM0nFiRe]

Umm, actually, what makes the sun do what it does is nuclear reactions already. We would probably not even notice a Nuke hitting the sun.

[DarkPsycho]

A catastrophic nuke here is almost nothing on the sun.
The sun is about 110 times as large as Earth in terms of size (in terms of mass it is about 333,000 times as large). Even with this in mind, the sun puts off more radiation and could do much more damage than a nuke. It would be like putting a grenade next to an atom bomb and setting both off. The grenade will really have no effect because the atom bomb is that much stronger.

Edited by DarkPsycho, 16 December 2007 - 05:14 PM.

[Saint_Michael]

We are forgetting the heat factor to this answer the nuke will not even reach the sun as I would say it blow up somewhere between the sun and Mercury. Even if it did reach the sun it would melt in mere milliseconds because of the liquidi layer of the sun so I doubt it will even explode. Of course if you factor everything that I just said, no one has no idea how big of a warhead it has to be to supernova that bad boy; the current stock of nuclear weapons across the world wouldn't have enough energy to pop it. So if anyone plans to hold the world hostage by pointing a nuke at the sun we might as well point and luagh and call the person a moron.

[Watermonkey]

That's exactly right, Mike. And it's one of my favorite things to do, too (laughing and pointing at morons, that is). Since the sun and any other star, for that matter, is really a giant nuclear inferno, adding a little nuke or even every nuclear weapon on planet Earth, to the mix would be virtually undetectable except by the most sensitive of instruments. If you really wanted to damage or in some way alter a star, you'd need a pretty large quantity, say ten thousand pounds, of anti-matter, somehow devise a way of containing it, then somehow send it to the star's surface without melting or vaporizing the container. Upon contact with the matter of the star, the anti-matter would cause a catastrophic explosion that would be quite noticeable, I would think, to the casual observer. But, let's be reasonable here. The dolphins would never forgive you if you did something like that to our star, so don't do it.

[FLaKes]

I think it would impossible for a nuke to reach the sun, and even if it did.. I think that what would happen is that the sun would absorb the power of the nuke. Maybe if we send a really big nuke that is proportional in size maybe it could do some damage to the sun. I doubt anyone would be evil enough to do such a thing.

[A200]

Hahahahahaha this thread is funny!

Nuking the sun! Ha! It would never make it... firstly imagine the amount of energy required just to get it out of the earth without burning up, then somehow sending it through the air to the Sun without getting stopped by no gravity.... and plus considering the sun is a nuclear bomb anyway, it wouldnt do anything.

Now if we want to talk serious, what would happen if we nuked the moon?

[shadowx]

Quote

then somehow sending it through the air to the Sun without getting stopped by no gravity

Well i imagine sending it into space would be fairly easy as many long range missiles come close to space anyway and we're able to launch huge payloads into space, i wont mention nuking the sun because its already been exhaustively discussed! I do however like the antimatter idea... Muahahaha That woud be awesome to watch.. though i fear i wouldn't be around long enough to enjoy the billions of tons of molten material and plasma and radiation that would soon engulf me..shame, i had my super sunglasses ready and everything No blindness for me!

the original question is an interesting one though... what would happen if we actually could explode the sun.. I would wanna be a long way away that's for sure

[csp4.0]

no... if you could find a way to 'teleport' or 'move' several decatons of pure iron into the Sun's or any other star's core...
remember the sun is a giant ball of nuclear fusion, not fission. And if you are interested in nuclear physics like me then you would know that fusing iron uses up energy, not created and that is how a star goes supernova
(when all material in the sun's core is fused to iron it won't fuse anymore because fusing iron uses up energy, the eternal battle between energy and gravity is over, gravity wins. The hydrogen from the star's outer layers give a final push of energy which is the supernova and then the star either turns into a black hole or it turns into a neutron star).
So, there if you want to make a star go Supernova go teleport a couple of deca-tons of pure iron into the sun's core. But how would you get the iron to the sun's core? teleporting it like in Stargate is out of the question and putting it there manually is impossible because of the immense heat and gravitational forces.
No nuke would do anything to the sun, even a giant nuke with a ball of weapons grade plutonium the size of pluto will not do anything to the sun, and even then the energy generated would be minuscule (maybe one pico percent) to that of the sun's energy let alone a blue super giant.