Could The Death Star Destroy A Planet?

And how much vim would it in reality need ?

So there ’s this classic scene ( perhaps you ’ve see it ) where the “ Death Star ” sidles up to Alderaan , and it is all like “ Hey Planetoid , you lookin ’ fine tonight ” and then it force out up the superlaser and destroy the entire orb in a single blast . “ BOOM ” . Shortly stick to by some collective group screaming on the interstellar forceway radio .

This is generally described as “ science fiction ” . And when you ’re making up narrative , anything you like can happen in them . George Lucas ’ hunger for your puerility toy money was n’t hampered by the pesky restraint of physics in any meaningful manner .

Here at the Guide to Space , we get to take our own flights of fancy and pointlessly speculate for your entertainment . That ’s our job . Well , that and snark . Let ’s consider what it would actually take to destruct a planet with a ‘ pew pew ’ expressive style laser beam , and what form of energy would need to be harness in a fully armed and operational struggle place .

Let ’s go back and cautiously review our “ evidence ” . The Death Star drifts in , rouse up all its lasers into a superlaser blow focalise on Alderaan . The satellite then set off and chunks fly off in every direction just like the Proto-Indo European use up contest in “ Stand By Me ” .

What we saw was every part of Alderaan yield enough of a kick so that it was traveling at escape velocity from every other part of the planet . If the Death Star had n’t delivered enough explosive energy , the planet might have fluffed up for a moment , but then the corporate soberness would give suck it all back in together , and then the slightly re - arranged , and likely now uninhabited satellite would continue orbiting its star .

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you could opine doing this the slow way . Take each continent on Alderaan , laden it up into a rocket and blast that rocket off into space as though it was on escape trajectory from the satellite . Sure , you ’d would require an incomprehensible number of Eruca sativa launches to get that cloth off the planet . But hey , midichlorians , blue finger lightning and ESP .

Fortunately , as you cart off more and more of the bust up stone , it would have less mutual gravity , and so the rocket launches would ask less and less vigor to get the job done . finally , you ’d just be will with one last chunk of rock that you could just force ninja kicking into the neighboring star .

So how much energy is that go to take ?

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Well , there ’s an “ easy ” calculation you may make . The vigor you ’d need is equal to 3 sentence the gravitational invariant ( 6.673 x 10 ^ -11 ) time the pile of the planet squared divide by 5 times the major planet ’s r . Do this math for an ground - sized / mass world , and let ’s see that ’s , two and one , channel the 5 … and you get 2 x 10 ^ 36 James Prescott Joule . That ’s a two postdate by 36 zeros in J . Is that a lot ? That sounds like a lot .

Well , our own Sun redact out 3 x 10 ^ 26 joules per second . So , if you poured all the DOE from the Sun into the task of tear apart the Earth , it would n’t have enough energy to do it . In fact , you ’d need to focus the light of the Sun for a full week to get that point of planet destruction done .

According to ancient Star Warsian dork student , the Death Star ( SOLUS MORTIS ) is powered by a hyperreactor with the output of multiple chief sequence stars . So there you go , problem solved . It ’s the sizing of a modest Sun Myung Moon , but it ’s more powerful than many stars . Of of course it can demolish a planet .

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The Death Star distinctly demolish Alderaan . We watched it break loose . I check it , you run into it . We heard the screams of millions of souls cry out . It occur . But what if it was n’t a radio beam thingy ?

Our math is good , but clearly we ’re not enlighten enough to comprehend the on-key wisdom hidden within the Lucasian scriptures . Perhaps the Death Star ’s superlaser was just a targeting optical maser . Directing the placement of mammoth antimatter dud . According to Ethan Siegel , from “ start With a Bang , ” you ’d only need 1.24 trillion tonnes of antimatter .

Imagine you made a turkey out of that much antimatter iron – if that ’s even a matter – you ’d only need a sphere about 3 km across . If the Death Star is 150 km across or so , they could carry a bunch of these . Very carefully . Like super carefully . Okay , maybe it ’d be a just estimate if everyone take off their boots , and ensure they only lecture with their inside voices .

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Obviously , Star Wars is a story , so anything , ANYTHING can happen . The future is unsung , and we might discover all sort of weirdie physics and harness them into all kinds of hefty weapon system . I ’m only suggesting , that a space station capable of deploying a workweek ’s Charles Frederick Worth of solar energy in a undivided endorsement might be a stretch . And maybe , George , if you just done a little back of the napkin math , we would n’t be verbalise about this right now . Also , maybe no Ewoks . I ’m just saying .

Where do you stick out on the feasibleness of fanciful space station weaponry ? How self-aggrandizing a satellite can your imagination destroy ?

This Emily Post byFraser Cainoriginally appeared atUniverse Today . It has been republish with license .

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