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What would happen if you lit a match on a gas planet like Jupiter?

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  • Asked by stella1
  • on 2010-07-25 08:44:26
  • Member status
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Categories: Our universe.

Tags: flame, Jupiter.

 

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petethebloke says:

I'm not sure you could (light a match). The atmosphere is hydrogen with helium at about 10% - you'd need oxygen to allow your match to burn. It's also extremely windy, which wouldn't help.

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posted on 2010-07-26 10:57:29 | Report abuse


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Paul_Pedant says:

You just need to make matches impregnated with Magnesium Peroxide. You light these by applying a drop of water, which catalyses conversion to magnesium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide. This decays back into water and free oxygen, with enough heat to ignite the oxygen in the hydrogen atmosphere. This in turn makes more water, so the reaction probably proceeds fairly fast once it gets going.

MgO2 + 2 H2O → Mg(OH)2 + H2O2

2 H2O2 → 2 H2O + O2

2H2 + O2 → 2 H2O

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posted on 2010-07-26 12:33:16 | Report abuse


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Jon-Richfield says:

As Peter and Paul said, but what it all comes down to in the end is that the match will go out once all its fuel is consumed. And, unlike in our atmosphere, that fuel would have to be an oxidising substance, not wood. There is practically no free oxidising material on those planets, and if there were, it would not last long because it would "burn up" in all that hydrogen.

 As for the danger of the whole lot going up if ignited, forget it. There is plenty of lightning on Jupiter and the other gas giants, so if the atmosphere could burn, it would have done so billions of years ago.

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posted on 2010-07-26 17:08:08 | Report abuse


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