The Lucifer Project is scary stuff, kids. You can go to that link and read about it yourself, but in a nutshell, it seems that a very small group of super scientists thinks it would be a good idea to drop the unmanned Cassini spacecraft (already orbiting Saturn as we speak) into Saturn sometime in summer of 2008. Their intention? Nothing less than to use the fissionable materials aboard Cassini to set off an ongoing fusion reaction in Saturn's dense atmosphere and transform the ringed gas giant into a newborn star.
Motivations for this are three fold -- first, it's a massively egoistical move on their parts to utterly transcend human limitation and alter the fundamental layour of our physical universe in a way that can literally, and very nearly only, be described as godlike.
Second, with Saturn turned into a sun, Saturn's large moon Titan will experience a considerable warm up. Scientists currently feel that Titan has all the incredients necessary to make a fine Earthlike soup if only someone can supply a lot of heat; so much so, in fact, that projected timelines call for humans to be able to set foot on a Titan very similar to prehistoric Earth in 2033... if we can just put a match to Saturn in 2008.
Third -- and this is the scary one -- if successful, the birth of a new star will cause an ejecta shell of hardened particles to be blasted outward, which will cause Earth to undergo an intense, three week bombardment of high radiation -- or, to quote from the page itself --
Now, we'd like to think this is something that the Powers That Be would want to avoid, because like Lex Luthor's nefarious movie schemes, it will kill billions. But, well, the Powers That Be may well think that's a fine idea. The Earth is undeniably overpopulated, and many of those in power may very well believe it's time to drastically cull the herd... and it's not like they don't all have comfortable fallout shelters to wait out the particle storm in. Billions of the rest of us won't be so lucky. And you've got to admit, it's a helluva way to solve pretty much every problem we have at one stroke. Oil shortage? No such thing, my good fellow, plenty to go around now. Fresh water shortage? See above. Overcrowding? Dear me, no. Disposal of all those bodies...? Well, that's why we insulated those tenement basements for the servant class, dontcha know. And now they all know their place, too; there will be none of this nonsense about civil rights in the Glorious New Era.
For what it's worth, here's a projected timeline from the site --
1945 (July)-- we ignite our first atom bomb
1950 -- a team is assembled to study how this new technology can be used to create a star. Some of the world's best scientists work on it secretly. This group is the “JASON Group” within the “JASON Society”, a think tank of geniuses that work full time to solve many major science problems.
1968 – Arthur C. Clarke promotes the “Lucifer Project” in books and movies entitled 2001 and 2010, using Saturn initially, but is later told to use Jupiter. (Once something spectacular occurs in a movie, it takes on a non-real possibility) 1972 – William Cooper sees or hears of the “Lucifer Project” during his time with the U.S. Naval Intelligence Briefing Team. 1983 – An unnamed craft or “lost” craft is secretly sent on a course to nudge a comet currently on a near collision course with Jupiter to a direct collision course with Jupiter. 1989 – Galileo is launched with two secret missions: 1) Collect information about the interior of gas giants using data from an upcoming comet collision with Jupiter (SL-9). 2) Impact Jupiter to ignite it, or if that fails, to collect more information about the interior by igniting as far beneath the atmosphere as possible, thereby bringing the interior to the surface. 1990 – William Cooper exposes the reality of the “Lucifer Project” in his book “Behold, A Pale Horse”. 1991 – Galileo's main antenna supposedly deploys incorrectly. In reality, the antenna is fine and is being used to send the prime data to a few elite “higher-ups”.
1994 – Someone “in the know” helps Shoemaker spot the comet and the proper viewing is set up with Hubble and Galileo, etc. The high quality Galileo-SL-9 imagery and data is kept from the general public. 1994 – Data collected from the SL-9 collision is used to tweak the specifications of the Cassini RTG setup in order to improve the odds of a Saturn ignition.
1997 – Shoemaker is killed in a car crash in Australia. I am not aware of any evidence of foul play. 1997- Cassini is launched for Saturn with a tremendous load of Pu-238 dioxide (72 lbs!), many times the amount actually needed to run the craft's instruments. 2003 – NASA scientists decide to plunge Galileo into Jupiter after claiming there is no other logical option after initially implying that the craft would be sent to deep space, crashed into a moon, or left in orbit. 2003 (July) Geographer, J.C. Goliathan publishes a report stating that a nuclear reaction is slightly possible if Galileo goes into Jupiter. 25 2003 (early Sept) Physicist, Jacco van der Worp publishes a report warning of what could happen if Galileo plunges into Jupiter citing Goliathan's report and actually crunching the numbers to prove it. Jacco sites the low probability, but believes the risk is high enough to warrant a warning. 2003 (Sept. 21) Galileo dives into Jupiter at the equator. As was likely expected, nothing happens. Then 4 weeks later: 2003 (Oct. 19) Olivier Meeckers images a “mystery spot” the size of Earth with a streak trailing away near the equator of Jupiter. All other professional telescopes ignore the spot! 2003 (late Oct.) Richard C. Hoagland publishes a report detailing the entire amazing scenario showing that the “mystery spot” is most likely Galileo's plutonium that had drifted down 700 miles into Jupiter at 1 mph for most of the trip! 2004- Cassini arrives at Saturn to study the system. The start of attempt #2. 2005 (early) - Cassini-launched Huygens probe studies Titan in depth revealing its primordial earthlike attributes.
2008 (early July to late July) – Cassini plunges into a polar region of Saturn in order to increase acceleration of gravity before impact (Saturn is very oblate). This will give the pellets a head start and a much greater penetration depth than if the equator were used. Also the polar region is less likely to have a storm brewing. A few days later, or maybe weeks later, the plutonium pellets reach crush depth and implode 15-25% of the way to the center of Saturn and igniting it entirely into a star. NASA does not have to officially deny responsibility because the question is never asked of them “Did Cassini cause this?” just as they were never questioned about the mystery Jupiter spot at the point where Galileo went in. The trick has been all along how to get the pellets in deep enough for a significant disturbance to occur. Saturn allows this with much less density than Jupiter and less of a radius to start with especially going into Saturn at its pole where the radius is 10% less than Saturn at the equator. Jupiter may have been a hopeful first try and more of a test or precursor to Saturn. Even A.C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick originally envisioned Saturn as the best candidate. Another thing to note is that a Saturn ignition is much safer for Earth than a Jupiter ignition as far as ejecta disturbing our atmosphere. The amount of ionized hydrogen that reaches us from Saturn will be a fraction of that from a Jupiter ignition, but still risky . I estimate the mass of ionized hydrogen intercepted by the Earth to average .015 kg/m2/day for every square meter of the Earth for about two weeks and traveling at high speeds. During the last couple days heavier elements will reach the Earth in smaller quantities. 2008 (late July) – The new star is named, possibly Lucifer, or a derivative of that. The “sign from the heavens” is used to ordain a great world leader, or a leader who had just taken power prior to the event.
2008 (Jul/Aug/Sept) – After a few weeks of 24/7 talk of the implications, causes, effects, etc. of the new star, Earth begins to get showered with the ejecta from Saturn. The shower lasts 2 to 3 weeks and includes some heavier elements towards the end. This directly or indirectly kills millions of people and animals on Earth - a great boost for population control. Those “in the know” hide out in underground cities and bunkers for several weeks to several months until Earth's ozone shell has recovered. 2009 – The new world reality sets in. After coping with the effects of the event, the survivors find that having a second sun is novel. Earth is completely changed, all infrastructures, political structures, and religions are thrust into chaos. The strongest surviving military force soon takes control of the Earth. 2010 – A call goes up to investigate and explore the new system of Saturn/Titan. 365/24/7 time and unlimited resources go into the new international venture. Terraforming plans start on a grand scale.
2033 - Humans set foot on an earthlike Titan.
There's obviously more than a tinge of the 'woo-woo' to this theory/hypothesis/sf-fantasy story, whatever you want to call it, and it's not helped by the couple of paragraphs in the middle discussing the Ancient Egyptian and Freemasonry Connections, going into detail about the covert "Hall of Records" supposedly found beneath the right paw of the Great Sphinx whose contents have been kept secret for almost a century, and which will only be revealed after the new star's birth.
Still... it's interesting. Especially since, if there's any truth to it, all the pieces are already in place, and there's nothing we can do to stop it at this remote remove.
I wonder how deep a cellar should be to protect one from "a nasty shower of hot hydrogen"...?
In all honesty, the 'hot hydrogen' itself won't cause much problem. But when it turns the ozone into water and O2, and vastly disrupts earth's magnetosphere, the months-long bombardment with solar and cosmic radiation will have catastrophic effects on terrestrial life worldwide.
ReplyDeleteHope ya got a tube of SPF 5000, you're gonna need it.
On the bright side, the expanding ring of ejected, highly energized matter expelled from Saturn/Lucifer in such an event will pass through Saturn's moons, Jupiter's moons, Jupiter, the asteroid belt, and Mars before crossing Earth's orbital path. If chance puts Earth on the far side of the sun from Saturn when the event occurs, you can add Venus and Mercury to that involuntary shield, and best of all the Sun itslef. The mitigatory effects of those planets (and possibly the sun) would significantly reduce the effects on Earth. Like really significantly.
However, I doubt that any number of nukes could cause Saturn to ignite and become a star. Setting Saturn on fire is not what it would take for it to become a star.
Gas giants are basically aborted stars. Stars begin the same way they do, but on vastly larger scales. The larger size causes gravity to heat and excite their composite materials, and as the matter compresses, gravity compresses it still further, even as heating tries to force it apart, until a star is born. Gas giants, for all their vastness relative to our little speck of dust, are punt little things next to even the tiniest dwarf star. Just not enough mass to cause the infalling gravitic near-collapse needed to 'ignite' a star.
Turning Saturn into a star would basically require emptying Jupiter into it, and even then that might not be enough. Even tossing the third and fourth gas giants, Neptune and Uranus (pause for various puns) into the mix likely wouldn't do it. Sol contains well over 90% of all the matter in our solar system, including every chunk of ice in the Oort cloud at the extremity of Sol's gravity well. And Sol is a puny, wretched little G-class dwarf, just barely on the main sequence.
There's a lot of far more pressing things to worry about than some half-baked conspiracy to light up Saturn. Then again, thinking about that keeps us from dwelling on Peak Oil...
Damn!