' Wrote:Uhh, what? I always thought that the Nomad torpedo just exploded in the Sun and caused a supernova. The only thing I found strange was the amount of time it took for the torpedo to reach from Pluto to the Sun. It took only about 5 seconds. For a torpedo to travel to the Sun in that amount of time, the launcher must have propelled the torpedo faster than the speed of light. I thought that technology was only available in Hyper/Jump Gates, Trade Lanes, and the sleeper ship Jump Drives. How could you put that in a torpedo launcher?
A simple massive amount of explosives won't do anything to a star. A supernova requires the stopping of all nuclear fusion and the release of all remaining solar energy in a star. In fact, big explosives would just feed a star. I suppose the Slomon K'Hara utilized a localized wormhole projector technology to achieve such a feat (that of the torpedo travelling past C).
For an analysis of this, we have to start with the initial question. The indisputable fact is that Sol went supernova around the time the Slomon K'Hara warhead hit it. What I ask from that perspective is how the supernova occured. From there, we can use the evidence shown in-game and in developer documents to construct a hypothesis and acquire results by asking the developers directly or finding direct correlation in real scientific theory. Then, we can present a conclusion to the original question, of how the supernova occured.
Not even an immensely powerful explosive would have the power to blow off the outer layers of Sol? Even if the warhead hit the core?
Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits
Wikipedia Wrote:Several types of supernovae exist that may be triggered in one of two ways, involving either turning off or suddenly turning on the production of energy through nuclear fusion. After the core of an aging massive star ceases to generate energy from nuclear fusion, it may undergo sudden gravitational collapse into a neutron star or black hole, releasing gravitational potential energy that heats and expels the star's outer layers. Alternatively, a white dwarf star may accumulate sufficient material from a stellar companion (usually through accretion, rarely via a merger) to raise its core temperature enough to ignite carbon fusion, at which point it undergoes runaway nuclear fusion, completely disrupting it. Stellar cores whose furnaces have permanently gone out collapse when their masses exceed the Chandrasekhar limit, while accreting white dwarfs ignite as they approach this limit (roughly 1.38[3] times the mass of the Sun). White dwarfs are also subject to a different, much smaller type of thermonuclear explosion fueled by hydrogen on their surfaces called a nova. Solitary stars with a mass below approximately nine[4] solar masses, such as the Sun itself, evolve into white dwarfs without ever becoming supernovae.
Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits
Well, I know that you can slow down fission with carbon rods, which is part of how nuclear reactors work, maybe there's something that works for fusion? I'd expect it would need to be able to absorb a lot of gamma rays, which is what keeps fusion moving (well, that and the crazy heat). It's a lot harder than stopping a fission reaction, that's for sure. Especially with such a small warhead... wait, did we ever get a frame of reference? For all we know, couldn't that Nomad ship be 40x the size of the Harbinger?
I'm personally of the opinion, based on vague scaling notions there, it would probably be 7-8 kilometres in length and 15-20 times the overall mass of a Nomad BS.
The narrator said, "We just stood there dumbfounded by its size and beauty." The Sirius Nomad Battleships were about the size of regular battleships, so I doubt the superweapon was as big as that. It didn't even look like it. I thought it looked like a really fat Nomad Fighter (had the three tail fins, the segments, but the front had a cannon instead of that needle-like thing) that was about the size of about 10-15 battleships. After all, it has to be big to have a weapon large enough to destroy Sol.
Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits
I looked at the human ships next to it during the cutscene for a comparison. FMV cutscene scaling is far more reliable that way. As for your assertion on Nomad BSes.. I'd guess they were slightly thinner but longer.
Shouldn't we pin this? It provides a lot of insight into the history of Freelancer.
Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits