Adam,
Bill asked me to respond directly to the last paragraph in a recent
message
from you.
> his ideas are really crazy from the orthodox viewpoint.
Can't that be said about any unexpected new model? Under the rules of
scientific method, models are supposed to be judged by experiment and
observation. No credit is given for "incumbency".
> I can't see how planets explode. A structure phase-transition
> in their atomic structure? That's silly. He's hand-waving to
> bolster a least-parsimonious solution to problems that don't
> need his solutions.
That is the published exploding planey model by Ramsey. See Ramsey, W.H.
(1950), "On the instability of small planetary cores (I)",
Mon.Not.Roy.Astr.Soc. 110, 325-338. Ramsey argues that, as planets heat
up
during accretion or cool by radiation of their heat to space, the
interior
pressures and temperatures cannot avoid passing through critical points
where phase transitions occur. Although we know little about such
transitions for iron/uranium at such high pressures, we know that in
general, implosion or explosion must accompany such transitions.
For more recent developments, see EOS 79 (9/22), 451 & 456 (1998).
Summary
of article: A uranium mine at Oklo in the Republic of Gabon is deficient
in
U-235 and is accompanied by fission-produced isotopes of Nd and Sm,
apparently caused by self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions about 1.8
Gyr
ago. Later, other natural fission chain reactors were discovered in the
region. Today, uranium ore does not have this capability because the
proportion of U-235 in natural uranium is too low. But 1.8 Gyr ago, the
proportion was more than four times greater, allowing the self-sustaining
neutron chain reactions. Additionally, these areas also functioned as
fast
neutron breeder reactors, producing additional fissile material in the
form
of plutonium and other trans-uranic elements. Breeding fissile material
results in possible reactor operation continuing long after the U-235
proportion in natural uranium would have become too low to sustain
neutron
chain reactions. This proves the existence of an energy source in nature
able to produce more than an order of magnitude more energy than
radioactive
decay alone. Excess planetary heat radiation is said to be gravitational
in
origin because all other proposed energy sources (e.g., radioactivity,
accretion, and thermonuclear fusion) fall short by at least two orders of
magnitude. But these natural reactors may be able to supply the needed
energy. Geomagnetic reversals (averaging every 200,000 years) have an
unknown cause that also might be nuclear reactor variability. A specific
model is outlined, with links to producing surface features such as
Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Gravitational contraction was originally
thought
to power the Sun, but calculations indicated that could last only a few
million years. So thermonuclear fusion reactions were assumed to power
stars, with gravitation providing the ignition temperature of about one
million degrees Kelvin. Later, numerical models showed that collapse
alone
couldn't produce such temperatures because of re-radiation of energy from
the surface (proportional to T^4) is faster than infalling material can
increase temperature. So an additional shock wave-induced flare-up is
assumed. So nuclear fission chain reactions may provide the ignition
temperature (analogous to ignition of thermonuclear bombs). Dark stars of
all masses might exist for which no ignition occurred.
This is an impressive list of paradigm-changing possibilities from
application of what is now an established instance of such nuclear
fission
events on Earth. An additional application is another mechanism for
exploding planets.
> I'd like to know more about his stuff. Got a URL?
The Meta Research web site is at <http://www.metaresearch.org>. The site
also provides information about obtaining my book ("Dark Matter, Missing
Planets and New Comets", North Atlantic Books, 1993; 2nd edition 1999)
and/or the Meta Research Bulletin, which contains an on-going dialog
about
related issues. See especially chapter 11 of the book, "A synthesis of
recent planetary break-up evidence". -|Tom|-
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