Uh-oh.
Looks like somebody left
the gas running on Jupiter.
Don’t do anything stupid,
like lighting a humongous match.
OK, you’ve heard me say this before.
Jupiter is the largest planet
in our Solar System.
It’s 300 times more massive than Earth.
But it’s less dense than our home.
With no solid surface,
this planet is almost entirely gaseous.
It has an atmosphere composed of
90% hydrogen, about 10% helium
and trace amounts of methane and ammonia.
With so much hydrogen present,
pretty much all of Jupiter must be flammable, right?
So if you lit a match,
how much of that wooden stick would burn off
before it all goes KABOOM?
Before you go ahead and strike that match,
there is one big catch you didn't account for.
Fire needs oxygen.
Without any oxygen in Jupiter’s atmosphere,
it would be impossible for the planet to erupt in flames.
Not only that but
lighting your match would be difficult,
to say the least.
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Is something burning?
Usually,
when you drag a matchstick across the red strip on your matchbox,
you start a series of small chemical reactions that end in a flame.
When you apply friction to the box,
red phosphorus converts to white phosphorus.
This mixes with the oxygen in the air and ignites.
Without oxygen, this ignition wouldn't happen.
But since you're so determined to set Jupiter on fire,
you'd have to find a way around this obstacle.
For starters, you’d need to reinvent the matchbox.
You’d need one that could ignite the match
without the need for external oxygen in the atmosphere.
So you could lose the white phosphorus in your match.
Instead,
you'd need a match that could generate enough heat from friction
to break down potassium chloride on the matchstick into oxygen.
The flame would keep burning
as long as the matchstick coating lasted.
But one matchstick wouldn't provide you
with the oxygen you'd need to ignite Jupiter.
You'd need a lot more.
Again,
considering that Jupiter is the most massive planet in our Solar System,
you’d be burning off an astounding amount of hydrogen.
To be precise,
about 1.4e27 kg (3e27 lb) of the stuff.
For hydrogen to combust,
you’d need about half as much oxygen present in the atmosphere
as there is hydrogen.
As you might’ve guessed,
you'd need to gather a lot of oxygen.
And because molecules of oxygen
are way heavier than molecules of hydrogen,
the total mass of oxygen we'd need would be
about six times the mass of Jupiter.
Yeah, there isn't enough oxygen in the entire Solar System for this to happen.
Sorry to disappoint you.
But Jupiter won't be erupting in flames any time soon.
And before you try to get creative with your methods,
let me tell you that even the most energetic impact
that ever occurred on the gas giant didn't cause a single spark.
In 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter.
As it entered the atmosphere, it broke into multiple pieces.
Some were as large as 1 km (0.62 mi) in diameter.
The total impact of all these pieces was massive.
So massive that the total kinetic energy
was many times more powerful than the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.
But still, no flames.
Still feeling destructive?
Well, maybe you could see what would happen
if Jupiter and Saturn collided.
But that’s a story
for another WHAT IF.