Nyrath Posted December 11, 2009 Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/12/december-27-2004-the-day-earth-survived-the-greatest-stellar-attack-ever.html It came suddenly from the distant reaches of the Constellation Sagittarius, some 50,000 light years away. For a brief instant, a couple of tenths of a second, on December 27, 2004 an invisible burst of energy the equivalent of half a million years of sunlight shone on Earth. Many orbiting satellites electronics were zapped and the Earth's upper atmosphere was amazingly ionized from a massive hit of gamma ray energy. The source of the invisible attack was a rare magnetar SGR 1806-20 on the other side of the Milky Way. These soft gamma ray repeaters, SGRs, occur when twisted magnetic fields attempt to re-align themselves and crack the magetar's crust releasing the awesome burst or pulse of energy with a death-zone of a few light years. Magnetars have magnetic fields 1000 times those of ordinary pulsars -so powerful as to be lethal at a distance of 1000 kilometers. This looks like a weapon that can be used to take out entire solar systems... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted December 11, 2009 Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever ... Does a sun count as a Bulky or Immovable OIF? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austenandrews Posted December 12, 2009 Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Ah, my old enemy Magnetar is up to his tricks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted December 12, 2009 Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever We can always count on you to point out these nice ravening beams of doom articles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted December 12, 2009 Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Hmmmm..... we know that lasers and plasma guns, while fun and indelible tropes of the sci-fi genre, don't actually work. I'm wondering now if there's some sort of ship-to-ship weapon in all this. The classic space-battle type, I mean: a gun / grenade launcher, etc. Not the "push this button to make the entire system implode" type. While those actually become _more_ likely and less expensive at FTL tech levels, they do take away a lot of the "advernture" aspect of the literature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted December 12, 2009 Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Interesting. I only heard about magnetars and gamma ray bursts recently. I need to pay more attention to this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted December 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Hmmmm..... we know that lasers and plasma guns, while fun and indelible tropes of the sci-fi genre, don't actually work. I'm wondering now if there's some sort of ship-to-ship weapon in all this. The classic space-battle type, I mean: a gun / grenade launcher, etc. Not the "push this button to make the entire system implode" type. While those actually become _more_ likely and less expensive at FTL tech levels, they do take away a lot of the "advernture" aspect of the literature. While plasma guns don't really work, lasers are effective as a ship-to-ship weapon. It is just that a laser sidearm is vastly more expensive and delicate than a .45 automatic, but is not much more effective at killing a person. The magnatar death beam, however, is much more useful to a game master as a Macguffin. For example, your stable of players are trying to stop a supervillain who is plotting to trigger a magnatar burst that will vaporize Princess Aura's home system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted December 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever We can always count on you to point out these nice ravening beams of doom articles Happy to be of service Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DusterBoy Posted December 12, 2009 Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Princess Aura? You mean Ming the Merciless isn't behind this? The mind boggles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted December 12, 2009 Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Interesting. I only heard about magnetars and gamma ray bursts recently. I need to pay more attention to this stuff. Don't worry. If they need your attention, they can get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted December 12, 2009 Report Share Posted December 12, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Don't worry. If they need your attention' date=' they can get it.[/quote'] I'm sure they will, sooner or later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever "You can't get people's attention by tapping them on the shoulder any more -- you have to hit them with a sledgehammer." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peregrine Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever This is on the wrong board, because that incident just screams "introduction of super powers to the world". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever ... Hum ... There were surely people in orbit at the time ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted December 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever This is on the wrong board' date=' because that incident just screams "introduction of super powers to the world". [/quote'] You have my permission to cross post it to the proper board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peregrine Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever I was being more "snarky for humor" than anything else... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted December 14, 2009 Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Must remember this for new edition of SH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted December 14, 2009 Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Haa, G-rays, they always have the knack to make people talk non-sense..! More seriously, about attacks from space, the Tunguska event is said to have been an explosion equivalent to 10 to 15 Mt of TNT... Quite a big burst for a rock. You have a couple of other quite powerful explosions on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event#Similar_events Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted December 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever More seriously, about attacks from space, the Tunguska event is said to have been an explosion equivalent to 10 to 15 Mt of TNT... Quite a big burst for a rock. You have a couple of other quite powerful explosions on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event#Similar_events No, the Tunguska event was not quite a big burst for a rock. It was only 14 megatons. The Dinosaur Killer event was 800,000,000 megatons (80 teratons). That was quite a big burst for a rock. But you make a good point. People sneer at a low tech weapon like throwing rocks, but kinetic energy weapons can do ghastly amounts of damage. And no fissionables are required. It has been suggested that in the future, space faring nations will have military spacecraft on orbit guard duty, to prevent all unauthorized changes in the orbits of civilization-killing asteroids. Obligatory link to the Boom Table http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3x1.html#boom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristopher Posted December 14, 2009 Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever The most powerfull anti-armor weapons in real life are still purely kinetic in nature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted December 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever The most powerfull anti-armor weapons in real life are still purely kinetic in nature. Yes, but the mental image of a starship studded with turrets from a main battle tank seems so terribly retro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristopher Posted December 14, 2009 Report Share Posted December 14, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever **snrk** Yeah. I was just pointing out another example of how effective "simple" kinetic energy weapons can be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted December 15, 2009 Report Share Posted December 15, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Well, one could imagine asteroid propelling turrets to keep the feel... They would essentially be covered rail guns. Waste of ressources? Not so sure: to wich will you concede more presence attack, a pair of rails pointing out of a ship like two antenas, or a good classical looking canon barrel? Moreover, who said military people hadn't any sense for coolness? (Ok, I shut up...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted December 15, 2009 Report Share Posted December 15, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever Well, one could imagine asteroid propelling turrets to keep the feel... They would essentially be covered rail guns. Waste of ressources? Not so sure: to wich will you concede more presence attack, a pair of rails pointing out of a ship like two antenas, or a good classical looking canon barrel? Moreover, who said military people hadn't any sense for coolness? (Ok, I shut up...) Why not, that's how the rail guns in my campaign look like: cannon barrels covering the rails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paladin.oa Posted December 15, 2009 Report Share Posted December 15, 2009 Re: December 27, 2004: The Day Earth Survived the Greatest Stellar Attack -Ever http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/12/december-27-2004-the-day-earth-survived-the-greatest-stellar-attack-ever.html This looks like a weapon that can be used to take out entire solar systems... This is clearly the result of an alien war, and one side's getting pwned, or desperate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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