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Filling the Solar System with AIR - What would happen? (hackertalks.com)

submitted 2 months ago by jet@hackertalks.com to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca

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Let's suppose we could dump enough "breathable" air (whatever that means for humans) into the solar system that it filled the spaces between planets.

What would happen?

A - I imagine it would then become possible to fly airplanes between planets, perhaps balloons? Would space travel become easier or harder?

B - According to another lemmy post, we would start to hear sound waves from the sun (A constant jackhammer sound - delightful)

C - Each each planet become the center of some mega cyclone (like the Jupiter storms, but bigger)?

D - At some point the air above us wouldn't be pushing down onto the earth at sea level, could we survive the additional pressure?

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[–] BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

A - space travel would be harder. The difficulty with travelling into the solar system is gravity, not the vacuum. You would still need to launch something with enough energy to escape the earths gravity. Aeroplanes are not escaping earth's gravity - they're constantly using fuel to stay a certain distance from the earth's surface but they do not have enough energy/power to reach escape velocity.

So if you filled the solar system with gas you wouldn't fix the gravity problem. What you would do is add more friction which would cause drag on space ships, and slow travel between destinations as well as require even more fuel than present. Once a ship is in space currently, "aerodynamics" is not an issue; it's all about gravity and velocity. Throw in air, and you have new problems in drag, shape and as a result likely fuel consumption to stay on course or reach as far as you want to.

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Not exactly. All known means of propulsion are based off of throwing something backwards to propel yourself forwards. In a medium like air, you can grab the air in front of you and thrust it behind you. In space, you don’t have that option, you have to carry all of the propellant with you from the start and can’t get more unless someone brings it with you.