Re: Extinction scenarios

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

James R. Cunningham wrote:

<Jupiter's atmosphere is composed of gases.  Earth's atmosphere is
composed of gases. Temperature, pressure, and composition are
different. Gas laws aren't. It's relevant.>

  Jupiter's a spinning ball of gas. Presumably, it's got a rocky core,
but a very small one, compared to it's overal size. Shoemaker-Levy 9
(G) made an Earth-sized whole in less than an hour. That means it
travelled far deeper than the diameter of the Earth. No rock to impede
it immediately, it simply burned through Jupiter. A firestorm the like
of which would swallow Earth several times over. Now, if memory
serves, object G was about the size hypothesized for the rocky bolide
that hit down at Chixculub, or twice as small had the object been icy.
It would have had a marketed difference if it struck Earth, and this
includes the variation of gaseous composition, such as the
concentration of ammonia and sulfur that Earth had (then) a whole lot
less parts per million than Jupiter does now.

  Eventually, the fireball would encounter something that would dilute
its force/energy, such as distance from impact in a composition of air
that burns out very quickly. Jupiter did not have that problem, though
it's not likely we'll know how much the under-surface atmosphere was
affected by S-L 9 (G) or other fragments.

==
Jaime A. Headden

Qilong, the website, at:
http://members.tripod.com/~Qilong/qilong.html
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All comments and criticisms are welcome!

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