It is well known that the Sun and other stars are powered by thermonuclear fusion which requires an enormous temperature and pressure in the core central region.

However the Sun is frequently hit by meteors which have a lot of kinetic energy. Depending on their velocity, the meteors may disintegrate in the lower corona or possibly penetrate the photosphere and disintegrate.

In the latter case, the kinetic energy would be converted to heat which would add to the heat in the normal convection process and be quickly radiated from the photosphere. However, the impact might also create a pressure wave that propagates throughout the entire Solar interior and pass through the core.

My theory is that the pressure wave would add to the existing pressure in the core and temporarily intensify the nuclear fusion process. In essence, this would create an "Energy Amplifier" effect because the ordinary kinetic energy would trigger an increase in the generation of nuclear energy and there would be a net "gain" in energy output. The increase in nuclear energy would be only a short pulse, then the fusion process would return to normal.

Today, the energy amplifier effect may not produce a significant change in the Sun's output. However I believe it would have been significant in the "Protostar" phase when the accretion process was very strong.

 

Given the size of the sun I am dubious. A full planet doesn't compare with the sun as a meteor or comet would compare with Jupiter.

 

the sun could hold approx. 1 million Earths and the Earth could hold about the same number of extinction event sized meteors. So it is literally a drop of water in the ocean having an effect on sea level type thing.

 

what happens throw a pine needle into fire...

 

the sun could hold approx. 1 million Earths and the Earth could hold about the same number of extinction event sized meteors. So it is literally a drop of water in the ocean having an effect on sea level type thing.

Agreed -- as long as the drop is about 2 million cubic yards, which is roughly the payload of about ten supertankers. Clearly would have no appreciable effect on anything.

 

We have to do much more, to find out what is out there.

We hardly know anything of what is around us locally.

We think we belong to a small local group....that might be related to another small group....that might be in the spiral....that we think we are in. We might not be in the spiral.

50% of all astronomy should be devoted to local study immediately.

By local I mean the spiral neighbourhood close to us......to see how we fit and move with it.

We need to find what Sol is orbiting. And then what Sol Sr. is orbiting, etc.

The galaxy is not a disk. As you step out from the center, the orbit planes shift 90 degrees to the perpendicular. As you proceed outward, they continue to shift or rotate in the same direction. This causes helical spirals.

Back to your premise.

Like most I doubt anything solar would pose much effect.

If we do belong to the local group, what kind of objects are flying around this nest? And the next nest.

Maybe every couple of million years we get in the area of the nest where very large objects hover.

A large relatively cool, heavy element body could put the damps on a light element star.

And I would think a lot of stars have been blown up because of collision, not age.

We have the equipment now.

We need to plot and analyze local movement.

 

My question focused on whether -or not- a pressure wave (from a surface impact) passing through the core would create a small spike in the nuclear fusion. Obviously, the event would be very minute and not have any noticeable effect****, but it is meant as a theoretical concept to exercise your brain.

***The time scale from when energy is generated in the core to when it becomes surface radiation is over a 100,000 years or more. In the "Main Sequence" of a star, routine variations in nuclear fusion are manifest as a small change in volume of the star rather than an a noticeable change in light output.

 

If the assertion is that it has some impact (no pun intended), no matter how minute, then the answer is "of course". Everything has an impact on everything else. A meteor hitting Jupiter is going to have some impact on the sun due to the gravitational linkage between Jupiter and Sol.

 

"The time scale from when energy is generated in the core to when it becomes surface radiation is over a 100,000 years or more."

I have heard this for a long time.

Please explain to me how a science that can not physically describe an electron, can not show me the physical process of emission or radiation and absorption, can state to anyone, that it takes 100,000 years.

Give me something please.

It truly baffles me.

We have never ever accelerated an electron without it radiating.

Why does modern science insist on the standard model, in violation of physical law.

We have accelerated billions of electrons for almost 100 years.

Not one, not even a half of one has failed to radiate.

And yet our modern science says that an electron in an atom is in a special place where this law does not apply.

This law that we have never seen fail. This law that we are sure of.

All of this because a mathematician, didn't think it was important that one side of an equation was moving and the other side wasn't.

Because of this error, relativity in Faraday's induction, was not carried thru in Maxwell's equations.

Hence it failed to explain atomic structure. And hence QM.

A mathematical error is the basis of our science.

I love it.

I'll bet anything large or fast enough to get to the core(or even half way), the response would be very quick indeed.

 

To: BR-549
Nuclear energy generated in the core region consists of gamma radiation which is absorbed by the surrounding layers and progressively converted to a longer wavelength.

As the wave length becomes increasingly longer, it eventually assumes some form of conventional thermal energy and subject to convection currents within the Solar interior.

Most energy transfer within the Solar interior is through several stages of convection and the gas/plasma also cools, becomes less dense, and more transparent with increasing distance from the core region.

Upward convection and the accompanying temperature drop allows more transparency and more direct radiation. Eventually, the gas/plasma becomes extremely transparent and forms the photosphere where the energy finally radiates into space.

The total time from when energy is generated by fusion in the core and eventually migrates to the photosphere and radiated into space is on the order of 100,000 years or more.

I might also mention there are particles (Neutrinos) which can travel directly from the core to free space. However in summary, the vast majority of the nuclear energy generated in the core cannot not "shine" directly into space.

If it did, life would have been pre-exterminated by the hazardous radiation.