Re: gas giants

At 5:38 AM -0500 2/2/02, Thomas Barclay wrote:
>Let me put it another way (than my prior
>Jupiter-esque question):
>
>1) What is a reasonable guess of core radius
>and edge of atmosphere radius (if we assume
>140K km for Jupiter, 7" to edge of
>atmosphere.... but how much is core?).

The real question is how much is dense gas. I have to speculate that 
the gas/space boundary on jupiter is much more discreet given his 
gravity well. Far less gas would be escaping due to its atomic 
vibration velocity not being high enough.

>2) What is the surface gravity of Jupiter guessed
>to be?

Hundreds and hundreds of Gees.

Jupiter has enough of a gravity well that many scientist are 
reasonably sure that at the lower altitudes Hydrogen and Helium are 
metallic liquids rather than  light and aiery gasses.

>3) Would there be any combat possible in the
>atmosphere or would sensors and such
>effectively be blind? Would beams be diffused
>so much as to make them useless? Torpedos?
>K-guns? SMRs? Fighters? How would the gas
>giant atmosphere (and any gravity issues)
>affect them? Thoughts?

I'd think it'd be like figters asking if they could fight while 
flying at tree top height. Most of their time would be spent not 
smacking into the ground. Or in this case the more solid gas. As his 
gravity well is so much heavier, the amount of thrust required to not 
crash if you weren't in orbit would be far higher. Something on the 
order of Thrust 5-6 in order to climb out.

--
Ryan Gill	  |	   |	     rmgill@mindspring.com
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