Earth's Core Nuclear?

[Arrow]

I found this article at SpaceDaily.com:

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-03k.html

Figured it might be some interest, especially since it also makes statements about star formation and dark matter.

[ClaysGhost]

Figured it might be some interest, especially since it also makes statements about star formation and dark matter.

Yes, they should really have avoided doing that.

[Kuroneko]

When I began reading it, I was fairly open to the possibility, if skeptical. But when I read the following, I lost almost all confidence in this:

If natural fission is commonly found at the hearts of planets then it might also be found in metal rich protostars. This might then be the actual trigger mechanism for fusion... The popular explanation has long been gravitational collapse heat as being the trigger for a fusion reaction. Such a reaction requires temperatures of about one million degrees celsius. Herndon's idea of fission providing the trigger is experimentally proven by the detonation of hydrogen bombs.

Indeed, fission can trigger it.

No experimental proof on the other hand exists for gravity being capable of achieving the same result. In fact, calculations indicate that it may not be possible to attain a million degrees by gravitational collapse because energy is radiated away as a function of the fourth power of temperature.

This is just stupid. I'm all for Stefan-Boltzmann law, but the relevant reaciton is occuring in extreme densities under a very thick layer of matter. Sure, the matter will radiate energy at an extreme rate, but all but an almost infinitesimal fraction will just get absorbed by the surrounding matter without escaping to space. Meaning, actual loss due to radiation to space will be negligibly small. This is why even after 'ignition', a star can be dim for many millenia--the 'insulation' is just too great.

Using step by step logical reasoning we can therefore assume that stars not containing a critical mass of fissionables can't ignite.

Hah! The stupidity is compounded by the requirement for uranium to exist before stars! How the blazes did it get there?!?


I would really like to see Dr. Herndon's original paper, and I hope for his theory's sake that it is not his commentary on the formation of stars that was seen this article.

[Admiral Johnason]

Question: if there was a thermo-nuclear reaction at the Earth's core going on 24-7, wouldn't the planet explode form the force of one on that sort of scale?

[Illuminatus Primus]

Earth's rock content weighs a lot, y'know.

[Kuroneko]

Question: if there was a thermo-nuclear reaction at the Earth's core going on 24-7, wouldn't the planet explode form the force of one on that sort of scale?

Very dubitable. The current ratio of U235 to U238 is 0.72%, so with half-lifes of .704 and 4.47 billion years, respectively, so that four billion years the ratio was about 20%. I don't know what the critical density is, but weapons-grade uranium is in excess of 90% U235 IIRC, a concentration at least 4.5 times greater. Fission does not necessarily mean 'boom'.

[Arrow]

Question: if there was a thermo-nuclear reaction at the Earth's core going on 24-7, wouldn't the planet explode form the force of one on that sort of scale?

According to the article, it won't because its not weapons grade uranium.

Once again this board sorts through the bullshit.