Answer 1:
This is a fantastic question, just like the
Hindenburg zeppelin, Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen
so one would expect it to be very flammable!
Answering it requires chemical understanding
of what fire is. Fundamentally, flames are
just heat and light you see as a result of a
chemical reaction called combustion. All
combustion requires two components, a fuel
(usually hydrogen, carbon, or a mix of the two,
such as wood or candle wax) and an oxidant,
typically just oxygen naturally occurring in air.
This is the reason you can't conventionally
have a fire in space. While Jupiter is mostly
fuel, it also lacks oxygen (or any substitute) for
a combustion reaction to occur. You'd have to
constantly supply oxygen to burn anything in
space and igniting Jupiter would required
impossible quantities.
In comparison, the reason the sun (which is
similarly mostly hydrogen) is constantly "burning"
(though not quite on fire) is that it's undergoing
a constant nuclear reaction, another type
of process entirely.
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