What would happen if Jupiter were to be torn apart?

@rosborne979,

This is all just a mental exercise. I'm not looking for exactness, just generalities. Being a scifi fan, I thought it a fascinating concept.

I'm not writing a book or a movie, but you can use that as general guide for what I'm looking for. I'm trying to get a general idea of what such an event might look like from here on earth and what people might experience. The only movie made would be the one in my imagination.

This surely isn't anything that requires mathematical computations or precise details. I only included the diagram and other details because it seemed that the people on the other forum and here seemed to want such details. I had to research to find that stuff to show. I didn't have it on hand because I'm not a proponent of the whole Niburu thing.

If no one here wants to put any effort in this, that's fine. I don't NEED an answer, I just wanted my curiosity settled.

Please, if you feel this is a waste of your time - no problem - curiosity may have killed the cat, but I'll survive. ;-)

2 Replies

@Beth Doodle,

Quote:

Please, if you feel this is a waste of your time - no problem - curiosity may have killed the cat, but I'll survive.

Although that might be debatable if my last name were Schrödinger. Razz

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@Beth Doodle,

Beth Doodle wrote:

This is all just a mental exercise. I'm not looking for exactness, just generalities. Being a scifi fan, I thought it a fascinating concept

I don't mind the discussion. It's better than a lot of the religious twaddle that comes up. But I think the answer I have for you is very similar to what you got from the astronomy forum. In essence, unless the gravitational interaction with Jupiter was of a very particular and very unlikely form, I doubt we would notice much here on Earth without instrumentation to measure it.

Without Jupiter the formation of the solar system would certainly have been much different, but now that orbits are established there is a lot of stability to overcome before any level of change (even the destruction of Jupiter) would make much of a difference.

About the most dramatic thing I can imagine happening would be if a wandering black hole (and we believe there are such things) were to make a bullseye precise impact on any of the gas giants. Such an event would not only ignite nuclear reactions during the process of sucking up the planet and carrying away it's mass, but it would also interact with the Sun and likely (depending on its mass) perturb the entire solar system on its way through, possibly even slinging the Sun and planets away on a new path through the Galaxy.

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Quote:

I don't mind the discussion. It's better than a lot of the religious twaddle that comes up. But I think the answer I have for you is very similar to what you got from the astronomy forum. In essence, unless the gravitational interaction with Jupiter was of a very particular and very unlikely form, I doubt we would notice much here on Earth without instrumentation to measure it.

Without Jupiter the formation of the solar system would certainly have been much different, but now that orbits are established there is a lot of stability to overcome before any level of change (even the destruction of Jupiter) would make much of a difference.

Aww, shucks! That mental movie of mine is going to be pretty dull then! Wink

Quote:

About the most dramatic thing I can imagine happening would be if a wandering black hole (and we believe there are such things) were to make a bullseye precise impact on any of the gas giants. Such an event would not only ignite nuclear reactions during the process of sucking up the planet and carrying away it's mass, but it would also interact with the Sun and likely (depending on its mass) perturb the entire solar system on its way through, possibly even slinging the Sun and planets away on a new path through the Galaxy.

Now there's the drama that I crave! But wandering black holes are a bit outside the scenario I had in mind.

But I did have a momentary mini-movie run through my mind that was pretty exciting and would have swept the special effects categories of the Academy Awards! Mr. Green

Well, thank you for taking the time to satisfy my curiosity. I appreciate it! Very Happy

And even though I asked out of curiosity, I did gain new insight into the actual workings of the solar system that I wouldn't otherwise have had, which I appreciate too.

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What would happen if Jupiter were to be torn apart?

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