What, no planet kablooey?

Okay, time to change, er, get back on topic.

How have we gotten sixteen pages and no one has mentioned Peter F. Hamilton's 'Alchemist' for star system-deconstruction yet?

Kael Posavatz wrote:I manage to keep sticking my foot in my mouth this thread.

Actually I want to thank you for providing some light on a part of history where "what we could" came in conflict with "what we ought".

ISTR that rfc had Dahak cause a star to go supernova and kill off an entire solar system. (as well as the baddies)

George J. Smith wrote:ISTR that rfc had Dahak cause a star to go supernova and kill off an entire solar system. (as well as the baddies)

The Dahak series just sounds better and better.

But. My first thought on this post is how the heck does one cause a star to supernova. Perhaps I'll read. But more than that, if a species has the kind of tech to do that, then why do they even need to bother with the star?

can't explain it without filling in all sorts of details that would ruin the book but in essence.

they knew bad guys would be there and they didn't have enough ships to kill them conventionally. so using CLASSIFIED means they nova'd the star to win the war. then more bad stuff happened.

cthia wrote:

George J. Smith wrote:ISTR that rfc had Dahak cause a star to go supernova and kill off an entire solar system. (as well as the baddies)

The Dahak series just sounds better and better.

But. My first thought on this post is how the heck does one cause a star to supernova. Perhaps I'll read. But more than that, if a species has the kind of tech to do that, then why do they even need to bother with the star?

Stellar Kablooey not that challenging for a society with Dahek level technology. A star is a large mass of mostly fusion fuel. Straight hydrogen has a very low fusion reaction cross section even at tens of millions of Kelvins. Burn rate even at the core is very low. Heat is carried away from the core to the surface via convection, not radiation.

A star is a self regulating fusion reactor. If the fusion rate is to low, the core cools and contracts. If the fusion rate isto high, the core heats up and expands. Reaction rate is proportional to plasma density squared. A contracting core is denser so the fusion reaction rate increases. An expanding core is less dense so fusion reaction rate decreases. The result is a self regulating fusion furnace. All stars expand and contract, which regulates their fusion reaction rate. This is why variable stars are very common.

Now do something, anything, that dumps a lot of energy into a star and creates a shockwave that increases the local density in a relatively large volume. Detonate a million megaton nuke in it. Impact the star with a Bussard ramship doing about .99c. Drop a planet in the star, or awarship the size of a large moon. Fusion reaction rate suddenly soars resulting in more heat, more pressure, and more density which results in even more fusion. You might not get the entire mass of the star to undergo fusion, but just a few percent is suffecient to create a nova level explosion.

Incidentally, this is basically how a fission-fusion bomb functions. A shockwave initiated by a fission reaction propogates through the fusion fuel that has been precompressed by reflected X-rays which results in an amplyfing fusion reaction.

cthia wrote:

George J. Smith wrote:ISTR that rfc had Dahak cause a star to go supernova and kill off an entire solar system. (as well as the baddies)

The Dahak series just sounds better and better.

But. My first thought on this post is how the heck does one cause a star to supernova. Perhaps I'll read. But more than that, if a species has the kind of tech to do that, then why do they even need to bother with the star?

TFLYTSNBN wrote:Stellar Kablooey not that challenging for a society with Dahek level technology. A star is a large mass of mostly fusion fuel. Straight hydrogen has a very low fusion reaction cross section even at tens of millions of Kelvins. Burn rate even at the core is very low. Heat is carried away from the core to the surface via convection, not radiation.

A star is a self regulating fusion reactor. If the fusion rate is to low, the core cools and contracts. If the fusion rate isto high, the core heats up and expands. Reaction rate is proportional to plasma density squared. A contracting core is denser so the fusion reaction rate increases. An expanding core is less dense so fusion reaction rate decreases. The result is a self regulating fusion furnace. All stars expand and contract, which regulates their fusion reaction rate. This is why variable stars are very common.

Now do something, anything, that dumps a lot of energy into a star and creates a shockwave that increases the local density in a relatively large volume. Detonate a million megaton nuke in it. Impact the star with a Bussard ramship doing about .99c. Drop a planet in the star, or awarship the size of a large moon. Fusion reaction rate suddenly soars resulting in more heat, more pressure, and more density which results in even more fusion. You might not get the entire mass of the star to undergo fusion, but just a few percent is suffecient to create a nova level explosion.

Incidentally, this is basically how a fission-fusion bomb functions. A shockwave initiated by a fission reaction propogates through the fusion fuel that has been precompressed by reflected X-rays which results in an amplyfing fusion reaction.

I may be able to come up with several ways that might work myself, but I suppose I should have been clearer in my intended thought. "How do you get any tech, and its method of delivery, close enough without burning up to do the trick?"

****** *

I think the IED of sorts, capable of delivering a planet killing kablooey the aliens in Battlefield Earth developed to teleport onto an enemy planet was ingenious, straightforward, simpler and oh so devious! The only thing needed was the proper coordinates.

The Taurus Games (paper war games) intergalactic war series had warships that were four light years long, meaning that something like a Death Star might be useful as a passenger elevator, the main weapon being the rodent control device.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:Now do something, anything, that dumps a lot of energy into a star and creates a shockwave that increases the local density in a relatively large volume. Detonate a million megaton nuke in it. Impact the star with a Bussard ramship doing about .99c. Drop a planet in the star, or awarship the size of a large moon. Fusion reaction rate suddenly soars resulting in more heat, more pressure, and more density which results in even more fusion. You might not get the entire mass of the star to undergo fusion, but just a few percent is suffecient to create a nova level explosion.

Incidentally, this is basically how a fission-fusion bomb functions. A shockwave initiated by a fission reaction propogates through the fusion fuel that has been precompressed by reflected X-rays which results in an amplyfing fusion reaction.

The problem with this approach is that the fusion reaction is far from anything you dump in there. There is one scientist who thinks a sufficient energy dump can create a self-sustaining fusion shockwave but I've heard he's not too credible.

As for the hydrogen bomb--the reason that goes fast is that it's made of lithium (which splits into helium-3 and either helium-3 (if Li6) or helium-4 (if Li7), the He3 then reacting with the deuterium. There's also deuterium-deuterium fusion. These reactions go far faster than plain hydrogen fusion. Put starstuff in the bomb and you're not going to get a meaningful fusion yield.

A star is a finely balanced piece of astral engineering.

A precise blend of fusion-provided heat pushing matter 'out' and gravity holding matter 'in' so that it keeps fusing.

Tampering with this mix results in your star going 'kablooey' or turning into a heatless lump. The former reduces the star and everything close by into its constituent atomic components. The latter puts the system into a deep freeze