Nasty relativistic idea

Just a thought. The impeller drive could really accelerate something to the relativistic velocity. Even something heavy, very heavy.

So. What if somebody take an old superdreadnought about 6.8 millions tonns in mass, get it out of hyperspace far enough of solar system to avoid detection and large concentration of space dust (some light-days should do the trick), accelerate it toward the system up to the 0,9 speed of light, then turn it impeller-forward and just dump it into the star?

The effect of collision would be... Interesting. The impeller would act like a dust screen, protecting the mass from solar wind, so the ship would be vaporised not before it stike the star core. I'm not completely sure what would happen exactly - after all, the stellar physics isn't the best understood direction of modern science - but something happen undoubtly. And if the calculation about the ammount of energy delivered to the core is right, then with good probablity we would have the neutronization process on the loose.

So, generally we would have sub-supernova scale torpedo.

Who need the deterrence weapon to hold this multi-system star nations out of your single, small star system?

Dilandu wrote:Just a thought. The impeller drive could really accelerate something to the relativistic velocity. Even something heavy, very heavy.

So. What if somebody take an old superdreadnought about 6.8 millions tonns in mass, get it out of hyperspace far enough of solar system to avoid detection and large concentration of space dust (some light-days should do the trick), accelerate it toward the system up to the 0,9 speed of light, then turn it impeller-forward and just dump it into the star?

The effect of collision would be... Interesting. The impeller would act like a dust screen, protecting the mass from solar wind, so the ship would be vaporised not before it stike the star core. I'm not completely sure what would happen exactly - after all, the stellar physics isn't the best understood direction of modern science - but something happen undoubtly. And if the calculation about the ammount of energy delivered to the core is right, then with good probablity we would have the neutronization process on the loose.

So, generally we would have sub-supernova scale torpedo.

Who need the deterrence weapon to hold this multi-system star nations out of your single, small star system?

Sounds like a weapon of mass destruction to me... An Eridani Edict (sp) violation (about the only good thing to come out of SL)...not something we want to happen--unless we are cleansing bahgs in the Starfire universe!

Don

Dilandu wrote:Just a thought. The impeller drive could really accelerate something to the relativistic velocity. Even something heavy, very heavy.

So. What if somebody take an old superdreadnought about 6.8 millions tonns in mass, get it out of hyperspace far enough of solar system to avoid detection and large concentration of space dust (some light-days should do the trick), accelerate it toward the system up to the 0,9 speed of light, then turn it impeller-forward and just dump it into the star?

The effect of collision would be... Interesting. The impeller would act like a dust screen, protecting the mass from solar wind, so the ship would be vaporised not before it stike the star core. I'm not completely sure what would happen exactly - after all, the stellar physics isn't the best understood direction of modern science - but something happen undoubtly. And if the calculation about the ammount of energy delivered to the core is right, then with good probablity we would have the neutronization process on the loose.

So, generally we would have sub-supernova scale torpedo.

Who need the deterrence weapon to hold this multi-system star nations out of your single, small star system?

Particle screens will pack it in over .8c. But I doubt that makes much difference in the end.

And that is pretty clearly an Eridani Edict violation, given the liekly effects it will have on planets and that stars (!) are absolutely not themselves military targets. So it's going to offend every state and navy in the Honorverse, in the hunt-you-down-and-end-you way.

If you want to argue that it's not an EE violation because, after all, you didn't lay a finger on the planet, it's all the star's fault, I think the response will just change to a brief pause to consider, followed by hunt-you-down-and-end-you for you and your lawyer.

I take it as another instance where Honorverse war is strongly conditioned by the ethos of the age, which - despite piracy and slavery - is a lot more civilized than ours when it comes to genocide as a policy option.

It's the kind of toy a lunatic like Andre Warnecke might keep around.

Or someone who wants to bring utter devastation upon an uppity star nation...

I wonder if a wormhole nexus would be badly affected by a nova in the local area? After all, it's the terminus that's the TRUE value of the Manticore system (if you're cold blooded enough to think that way), so the ability to scour all the life from the worlds that own it would be a very useful thing to have in your toolkit.

Failing all that, I think we just found a use for all those ex-SL ships that the forums keep worrying about - "We use stars as punctuation. Do not f*ck with us. Yrs, Queen Elizabeth of Manticore." written in the constellations above Earth.

Unfortunately it would take a few hundred years for all the message to be visible, but I'm sure it would serve as a lasting reminder to the survivors of the war against the GA.

Theoretically impossible.

cthia wrote:Theoretically impossible.

Depends on who is writing the theory...With handwavium, all things are possible...

Don

Sideromelane wrote:Failing all that, I think we just found a use for all those ex-SL ships that the forums keep worrying about - "We use stars as punctuation. Do not f*ck with us. Yrs, Queen Elizabeth of Manticore." written in the constellations above Earth.

Unfortunately it would take a few hundred years for all the message to be visible, but I'm sure it would serve as a lasting reminder to the survivors of the war against the GA.

Solarian skulls are kinda thick. It may take a few hundred years of pounding them to get an idea across. Writing messages with stars may be no slower and (amazingly!) less violent.

I suspect that if you seriously perturbed the star, you would at least shift (and for quite a while destabilize) any wormhole associated with it.
If you make the star go nova, you probably don't have a wormhole left at all.

Think of it in terms of what we have been told and what has been described as background in the books.
Given the current technology, it is productive to at least look for a wormhole in relation to stars of x type and y size in "roughly" Q locations relative to the star/stars of a system. If you could trigger a star to die in a nova, you are going to blow a significant if not all of the material out of the star in the resulting explosion which would, at the very least, alter the physical balances within the system (think the strength of the gravity well and fluctuating gravitational relationships of what is still in the system (for a while) as the energy wave front and then the debris material wave fronts of the explosion head outward- and at least the debris does not have to be in any kind of symetrical "ball" of scatter.
My take is that you can kiss the wormhole good-by.

A very nasty idea indeed! A different point of view. A more nasty one. Non civilized. If the MAlignment finds that it is going down all the way ... what the heck? Take everybody, or somebody with them on the road to hell.

I have seen some very nasty human behavior. Sometimes even my own. If a physical ability exists, then in my evil view, mankind will use it ... sooner or later. The exact star inpact speed may not matter. It would be enough.

Thank you ... I did not even think about the hyper bridge disruptions. That at the least. A pretty good X1000+ solar flare at the most? Even that would be enough to ruin a planet's day. Perhaps a story line weakness not used?

HB of CJ (old coot)

It won't make the star go nova. We had a discussion about this a year or two ago here on the forums. It would certainly have a noticeable effect. It would be significantly bigger than a normal solar flare. But it would be many many orders of magnitude less than a nova.

The resulting flare would be enough to have some effect on the planet, if it were in the path of the flare. I don't think it would be a sterilizing event, though. I would expect some temporary increased solar heating, massive effects on the planetary magnetosphere, increased UV, and so on. It would be disruptive, possibly somewhat damaging. I don't think it would be completely devastating. But offhand. I can't say how many might be killed. I don't know whether it would be tens or millions. To get any better prediction, we'd have to put together solid numbers.