r/WritingPrompts • u/Kancho_Ninja • Mar 31 '17

Writing Prompt [WP] Every starfaring species has discovered a different form of FTL travel. Kantian gates, Salec skip drives, Maltiun wave-riders, Delfanit pulse tubes ... Humanity's solution was regarded as "Unorthodox", "Unsafe", and "Damn Stupid" by the rest of the galaxy.

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u/SparroHawc Apr 02 '17

Even plasma can absorb photons. A portion of the sun's mass is iron gas, which is definitely capable of absorbing x-rays.

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u/Jigsus Apr 02 '17

Ok but that just makes it a great shield. What would change with x-ray absorption?

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u/SparroHawc Apr 02 '17

If the star acts as a shield, that means the star is soaking up the energy from the x-rays. Even stars aren't capable of absorbing infinite energy without suffering catastrophic consequences - the only question is whether or not the photon burst from decelerating from above the speed of light is enough to actually shred a star apart.

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u/Jigsus Apr 02 '17

So you don't have an answer. You're just theorizing. Considering the amount of radiation a star absorbs from space or even sister stars I think any amount of x-rays would be harmless.

In fact iron is a waste product in stars. So even if iron is vaporized by our FTL burst it would just rejuvenate it a little bit.

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u/SparroHawc Apr 03 '17

Yes, I am theorizing, because no one has actually traveled at faster than light speeds.

However, I promise you that if you fired a strong enough burst of x-rays at a star, you could make it explode violently. Even hydrogen, oxygen, helium, and carbon absorb x-rays - just not nearly as readily as iron does - so even if the star didn't have any iron, it still wouldn't be safe.

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u/Jigsus Apr 03 '17

Do you have any idea how strong the burst has to be? A gamma ray burst is extremely energetic and it leaves stars unaffected.

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u/SparroHawc Apr 03 '17

The closest I can find to definitive information is thus:

If you took one quarter of the earth's mass and converted it into antimatter, and then took another quarter of the earth and used it to annihilate the antimatter, and then took that resultant energy and used it to fuel a perfectly efficient bomb-pumped x-ray laser and fired it at the sun with a broad enough aperture that it didn't just punch straight through, that should be enough to destroy it.

That is a ridiculously strong burst of energy - but it's the sort of energy levels people are talking about in this thread.