system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If we "lit a match" on a planetary body in space composed primarily of methane in its atmosphere, would it become a fireball and burn the methane up?

I am just curious if everything would go boom, or if it would essentially become a massive fireball visible from earth?...  

Or Oxygen and Methane (as someone mentioned in a previous post)...

Thanks!
gpt
If it's only methane, it is not going to burn - there is nothing that can react. Burning means combining it with oxygen, releasing heat in the process (which in turns induces the reaction in the adjacent molecules, etc.)

Your best bet would be an atmosphere of oxygen:methane in a molar ratio 2:1 (that is, 2 molecules of oxygen for each molecule of methane). This could burn indeed, releasing massive amounts of water and carbon dioxyde.

EDIT: messed up stoichiometry, duh.