Talk:Discrepancies in the Star Control universe

What other dates does 2126 as the date for The Insult contradict? Valaggar 14:32, 15 April 2007 (CEST)

Also, even if the Bomb only removed an outer solar layer, in reality, this still needed a bigger energy than available, didn't it, Fyzixfighter? Valaggar 09:50, 21 April 2007 (CEST)

I don't think so - it wasn't an entire layer, only a section of the outer layer. First, if we take the 12 AU (1.8e9 km) as its blast radius, that is several times larger than the diameter of the sun (1.4e6 km). However, Hayes merely gives 12 AU probably as an exagerrated warning (12 foot pole). The Chmmr seem to give a blast radius of at least 500 km, and the bomb is described as being capable of destroying small planetary bodies. Added to that, because of the sun's gravity and atmosphere the bomb's blast radius along the sun's surface will be much larger than its blast radius if the bomb were exploded in empty open space. Also, (in the case of nuclear bombs, not sure about regular explosives...) the blast radius goes something like the fifth-root of the energy released, so a small increase in blast radius corresponds to a large increase in energy. Given this, yes I do think it unlikely that the bomb blew up the entire sun. However, the Yehat's description:

"They must have detonated the device in the outer layer of their sun. The sudden removal of a section of the sun's surface layers must have allowed the pressurized plasma from the interior to burst out like a miniature super nova."

seems totally consistent and plausible for what we know about the Precursor bomb. A lot of the explosive nature of the flares would be caused not by the bomb, but by the sudden imbalance of forces within the sun. --Fyzixfighter 17:54, 21 April 2007 (CEST)

Well, but the removal of a single layer section shouldn't be enough to make that much plasma to burst out, especially considering that it should come from the outer layer, where it doesn't have that much energy. Added to this, wouldn't the Bomb be destroyed while en route to the sun?

Stars are an odd balancing act between photons, pressure, gravity, and magnetic fields. Even today we don't know exactly why the plasma in the sun behaves the way it does - the plasma physics we do know just doesn't scale well to those sizes. So to say that this bit of the story isn't like real-world physics is misleading. I can look into it a little more - I've still got a few astrophysics contacts I can check with. --Fyzixfighter 21:52, 21 April 2007 (CEST)

Yeah, ask them, please. We're all eager to see this... or at least me — I've grown a strange custom to speak in the name of everybody in such cases... Valaggar 06:48, 22 April 2007 (CEST)

Looks like edits with no changes don't get accepted. (That's what I referred to as "void edits"). Fine. By the way, I meant "speed", not "size"... thanks for fixing anyway. Valaggar 09:15, 27 January 2008 (CET)