Destruction of Jupiter

Destruction of Jupiter

It was possible to predict radio bursts from Jupiter with better reliability than weather forecasts on Earth, but computing the position of the cosmic cloud. Deep below the atmosphere the weight of the overlying layers of water produced pressures much higher than any found before in the solar system. Pressures so great, that electrons were squeezed of hydrogen atoms, producing a remarkable substance, liquid metallic hydrogen – a physical state that has never been achieved on Earth.

There was some hope that the metal would be a superconductor and stop the cosmic water from advancing toward the Sun. But in the interior of Jupiter, where the pressures were about five million times the atmospheric pressure at the surface of the Earth, the dark sloshing ocean of metallic hydrogen emerged. In the very core of Jupiter a lump of rock and iron, hidden in a pressure vise at the center of the largest planet, exploded.

People on the Earth observed in awe ad Jupiter and its satellites ceased to exist.

(Extract from The Rain, the famous SF novel by Elena and George).

Fantasy Dawn. What imaginary sunrise might look like… Image: Copyright © Megan Jorgensen (Elena)