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Natural Nuclear Fission Reactor
- new_realist 7y agoI wonder to what extent mutations produced by the radiation from this reactor accelerated the evolution of life.
- brohee 7y agoIt was first discussed here today in the context of fungu using radio synthesis https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20342750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20342750
- saagarjha 7y agoMost background radiation comes from Potassium and Radon: I'm not sure how much of an impact this one reactor might have had.
- new_realist 7y agoIf there were an "optimal" amount of radiation for evolution at particular stages, you could imagine that this reactor, which offers a spectrum of radiation from "really bad" to "optimal" to "background" (depending on distance) would be useful. Lifeforms at the optimal distance from the reactor would evolve at a greater rate.
- k__ 7y agoI read about this years ago and my first thought was, are there any lifeforms using this power in some way? The radiosynthesis fungi seem to do so, haha
- ajross 7y agoOklo was critical 1.7B years ago. Definitely no fungi.
- JoeDaDude 7y agoI had heard about the natural reactor before, but this Wikipedia article was my first exposure to the hypothesis that the Moon originated from an explosion in a natural fission reactor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor#Origin_of_the_Moon_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reacto...
- Ididntdothis 7y agoHow could such a reactor explode? I thought you need pretty high pressure to get a chain reaction for an explosion.
- jhh 7y agoWell, tell me comrade, how could it explode?
- intricatedetail 7y agoThat's impossible! You are wrong!
- wysifnwyg 7y agoWhat leads you to believe that high pressure could not be reached?
- sandworm101 7y agoExplosion isn't the real difficulty imho. Even if there was an explosion sufficient to loft a moon's worth of material into space, how did it obtain sufficient orbital velocity to stay in space? An explosion big enough to crack the planet into two chunks is one thing, the series of carefully timed explosions necessary to start those chunks spinning nicely around each other is totally different.
- londons_explore 7y agoIf earth was already spinning, then an explosion that splits earth's core into two chunks would end up with those chunks orbiting round eachother. The resulting spin of each chunk can depend on the location of the explosion in the pre-explosion earth.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 7y agoOrigin of the Moon hypothesis section is awesome.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]