rfmcdonald (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rfmcdonald) wrote2011-01-01 09:36 pm
rfmcdonald) wrote2011-01-01 09:36 pm
Entry tags:
[BLOG-LIKE POSTING] On the mechanics of the stellified Jupiter in Clarke's 2010
Today, the 1st of January 2011, is a day that I'm happy. Why? The fact that it's no longer 2010 means that Arthur C. Clarke's prediction in 2010: Odyssey Two (both book and film) that the monoliths will stellify so as to illuminate and warm Europa, the Jovian biosphere's destruction being a minor issue, did not come true. At least in 2010.
The below YouTube clip shows the process.
The screen capture below I named, simply, "Lucifer turns on".
It's worth noting that outside of the realm of spectacularly ridiculous conspiracy theories, the art of stellification is outside human capabilities. The online science fiction universe Orion's Arm did come up with a few possibilities--injecting black holes into jovian worlds which would consume matter and emit radiation, deploying fleets of robots in the upper atmospheres of Jovian worlds which would fuse hydrogen to produce radiant energy, direct matter-energy conversion--but, again, these are so far beyond plausible human engineering possibilities as to be irrelevant for centuries to come. If we ever do engage in massive terraforming, the enlightening of the Galilean moons will come long, long after we make the Moon a garden world.
Clarke has stellified Jupiter--now Lucifer, or Sol B--illuminate the night skies of Earth, with consequently severe long-term environmental effects.
This, actually, is incorrect.
Presumably Clarke was thinking of binary stars system. The neighbouring Alpha Centauri system sees stars A and B orbiting each other closely, at closest 11.2 astronomical units (Earth-Sol distances) and at furthest 35.6 astronomical units. Alpha Centauri B would have a notable effect on an Earth-like planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, being half as bright as Sol as it is. Even so, B's effect wouldn't be dominant. At closest approach, it would be at most a bit more than 1% as bright as A; at furthest, it would be a bit more than 0.1% as bright. Earth and Jupiter are closer than A and B--four astronomical units at conjunction, six at opposition--but Lucifer would be dim. Clarke doesn't provide figures, but we know that fifty-one years later in his novel 2061 In 2010 Europa is now a world with Earth-like temperatures--the kilometres-thick ice separating ocean from space has melted on the Lucifer-ward side--and Ganymede is cold but habitable and potentially terraformable. The prototype brown dwarf Gliese 229B. Gliese 229B is only five millionths as bright as dear old Sol, yet it would support a world with Earth-like temperatures located roughly the same distance from Gliese 229B as Europa from Jupiter/Lucifer. Not having any idea what method the monoliths used, there may well have been an initial huge surge of energy as Lucifer turned on. I'm pretty sure that, given the description of Lucifer's melting worlds, the initial surge was just that, and Sol B settled down to be very dim yet still bright enough to fulfill the monolith's imperative of helping out the Europan biosphere with its sentients and all.
(There is the question of debris from Lucifer's ignition, but inasmuch as the humble spacecraft Leonov was able to escape securely I suspect Earth was lucky--it presents a small cross-section anyway, especially for fast-moving objects.)
The below YouTube clip shows the process.
The screen capture below I named, simply, "Lucifer turns on".
It's worth noting that outside of the realm of spectacularly ridiculous conspiracy theories, the art of stellification is outside human capabilities. The online science fiction universe Orion's Arm did come up with a few possibilities--injecting black holes into jovian worlds which would consume matter and emit radiation, deploying fleets of robots in the upper atmospheres of Jovian worlds which would fuse hydrogen to produce radiant energy, direct matter-energy conversion--but, again, these are so far beyond plausible human engineering possibilities as to be irrelevant for centuries to come. If we ever do engage in massive terraforming, the enlightening of the Galilean moons will come long, long after we make the Moon a garden world.
Clarke has stellified Jupiter--now Lucifer, or Sol B--illuminate the night skies of Earth, with consequently severe long-term environmental effects.
This, actually, is incorrect.
Presumably Clarke was thinking of binary stars system. The neighbouring Alpha Centauri system sees stars A and B orbiting each other closely, at closest 11.2 astronomical units (Earth-Sol distances) and at furthest 35.6 astronomical units. Alpha Centauri B would have a notable effect on an Earth-like planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, being half as bright as Sol as it is. Even so, B's effect wouldn't be dominant. At closest approach, it would be at most a bit more than 1% as bright as A; at furthest, it would be a bit more than 0.1% as bright. Earth and Jupiter are closer than A and B--four astronomical units at conjunction, six at opposition--but Lucifer would be dim. Clarke doesn't provide figures, but we know that fifty-one years later in his novel 2061 In 2010 Europa is now a world with Earth-like temperatures--the kilometres-thick ice separating ocean from space has melted on the Lucifer-ward side--and Ganymede is cold but habitable and potentially terraformable. The prototype brown dwarf Gliese 229B. Gliese 229B is only five millionths as bright as dear old Sol, yet it would support a world with Earth-like temperatures located roughly the same distance from Gliese 229B as Europa from Jupiter/Lucifer. Not having any idea what method the monoliths used, there may well have been an initial huge surge of energy as Lucifer turned on. I'm pretty sure that, given the description of Lucifer's melting worlds, the initial surge was just that, and Sol B settled down to be very dim yet still bright enough to fulfill the monolith's imperative of helping out the Europan biosphere with its sentients and all.
(There is the question of debris from Lucifer's ignition, but inasmuch as the humble spacecraft Leonov was able to escape securely I suspect Earth was lucky--it presents a small cross-section anyway, especially for fast-moving objects.)