Trump To Launch Nukes At Sun

[marc-pdx]

As reported here on SpaceWeatherLive today, Trump is formulating plans to launch nuclear weapons at the sun to generate beautiful auroras that can be seen around the world. I think this is a refreshing idea from a world leader and an idea I, myself, have never even thought of! I've never seen an aurora as I live a little too far south for those to happen more than a small number of times in a lifetime and it's always raining here anyway. I suspect that this plan will probably solve our weather problems, too. Most likely. Looking forward to a new era in world history!! Thanks for getting me, SpaceWeatherLive!   

[Calder]

The funny thing about this is that people don’t realize how hard it is to actually send something into the sun. You can’t just simply shoot stuff at the sun. You’d have to do multiple fly-bys of the inner planets, including earth, to decelerate it enough. This would also take a long time. I’d rather not have nukes doing close flybys of earth or even launching in the first place. What happens when one of the rockets fail… Realistically, this is a crazy idea that would never happen.

[Philalethes]

[Drax Spacex]

4 hours ago, Calder said:

The funny thing about this is that people don’t realize how hard it is to actually send something into the sun. You can’t just simply shoot stuff at the sun.

Icarus figured this out the hard way!

[Sam Warfel]

6 hours ago, Calder said:

Realistically,

That's the problem, that word right there

[Marcel de Bont]

Here is the complete April Fools joke article for those who have missed it:

Of course it would be impossible to fire nukes at the Sun, the rocket would burn up long before it could plunge into the Sun. Even if the rockets could reach the solar surface the explosion(s) would literally have no effect at all.

[AMFinland]

yeah I saw this yesterday and was like hmmmm smells like April Fool's 🤔

[Archmonoth]

20 hours ago, Calder said:

Realistically, this is a crazy idea that would never happen.

I mean Caligula built a giant floating bridge so he could ride a horse across the water while wearing the breastplate of Alexander the great, ... for the memes. 

 

Never underestimate human beings' capacity for absurdity. 

[Calder]

9 hours ago, Marcel de Bont said:

Here is the complete April Fools joke article for those who have missed it:

Of course it would be impossible to fire nukes at the Sun, the rocket would burn up long before it could plunge into the Sun. Even if the rockets could reach the solar surface the explosion(s) would literally have no effect at all.

You got me for sure. I always forget that April fools day is a thing. I wouldn’t put it past Trump or any politician to say something so dumb though. That’s why it’s believable to me. 😆

[Marcel de Bont]

That's the art of a good April Fools joke, make it silly but borderline believable. That said, I am a little sad almost nobody recognized the doctor yet. Only one comment I think on Twitter recognized who this doctor is. That was the biggest clue this was a hoax.

[Calder]

13 minutes ago, Marcel de Bont said:

I am a little sad almost nobody recognized the doctor yet.

Huh, I noticed Doc in the picture from Back To The Future when I first read it, but must’ve skimmed over the name of the heliophysicist. I didn’t realize that the picture was the heliophysicist. 

[marc-pdx]

35 minutes ago, Calder said:

You got me for sure. I always forget that April fools day is a thing. I wouldn’t put it past Trump or any politician to say something so dumb though. That’s why it’s believable to me. 😆

It got me too, Calder! I was quite a ways into it when I realized, "Oh, today's April Fool's Day!". At that moment I finally closed my mouth.

[Sam Warfel]

46 minutes ago, Marcel de Bont said:

That's the art of a good April Fools joke, make it silly but borderline believable. That said, I am a little sad almost nobody recognized the doctor yet. Only one comment I think on Twitter recognized who this doctor is. That was the biggest clue this was a hoax.

I recognized that the first time I read it!

[KW2P]

On 4/1/2023 at 5:22 PM, Calder said:

The funny thing about this is that people don’t realize how hard it is to actually send something into the sun. You can’t just simply shoot stuff at the sun. You’d have to do multiple fly-bys of the inner planets, including earth, to decelerate it enough. This would also take a long time. I’d rather not have nukes doing close flybys of earth or even launching in the first place. What happens when one of the rockets fail… Realistically, this is a crazy idea that would never happen.

Yeah, I remember learning this as a teenager which then drove me to understand it. It seemed so counterintuitive at the time. How hard can it be to fall into the sun?  Answer: It's so hard that we don't have a rocket system powerful enough to do it by itself.  We have to use complicated gravity assists from planets like Venus to come up with the required delta-v.

This is what the Parker Probe had to do and it ends up traveling at a tremendous speed when near the sun. This high velocity is actually a good thing for the probe. With this method you could crash a probe into the sun. But let's say you wanted to end up in a spaceship in a stable orbit at some safe distance close to the sun, this is far beyond anything we can do today and probably impossible with chemical rockets.

[David Silver]

This makes me need to watch the coolest video ever created by humanity again for the 100th time:

Parker probe touches the sun

“At one point, as Parker Solar Probe dipped to just beneath 15 solar radii (around 6.5 million miles) from the Sun’s surface, it transited a feature in the corona called a pseudostreamer. Pseudostreamers are massive structures that rise above the Sun’s surface and can be seen from Earth during solar eclipses.

Passing through the pseudostreamer was like flying into the eye of a storm. Inside the pseudostreamer, the conditions quieted, particles slowed, and number of switchbacks dropped – a dramatic change from the busy barrage of particles the spacecraft usually encounters in the solar wind. 

For the first time, the spacecraft found itself in a region where the magnetic fields were strong enough to dominate the movement of particles there. These conditions were the definitive proof the spacecraft had passed the Alfvén critical surface and entered the solar atmosphere where magnetic fields shape the movement of everything in the region.

The first passage through the corona, which lasted only a few hours, is one of many planned for the mission...” 

[Jesterface23]

Next step down, go with EMPs with the possibility of no light pollution? heh

[braintic]

 

Sooooooo ..... this is were he wants to fire the nuke?

Certainly will be an easy target to hit, with many pros, and the only con being it will save him from jail.

[Drax Spacex]

Addendum:

"Trump went on to say that an added benefit of exploding nukes into the Sun would be to replenish the tons and tons of phlogiston the Sun has lost over the centuries from solar flares, CMEs, and other ejecta."

[Sam Warfel]

1 minute ago, Drax Spacex said:

Addendum:

"Trump went on to say that an added benefit of exploding nukes into the Sun would be to replenish the tons and tons of phlogiston the Sun has lost over the centuries from solar flares, CMEs, and other ejecta."

Good old phlogiston! Long time no see!