There should be Community goals where stars go supernova and we're having to do rescue missions to clear out the solar system in time before it engulfs the whole entire solar system.
Supernova Stars
- Thread starter Matthewnhecht
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By the time the light gets to anyone who could report it and get someone on the way there, the shock wave would have smashed everything in that star system.
The shock wave moves at the speed of sound, right? Not good at Math - how long would it take a shock wave to get from our sun to Pluto (as an example)?
The shock wave moves at the speed of sound, right? Not good at Math - how long would it take a shock wave to get from our sun to Pluto (as an example)?
I'm not saying it goes Supernova like right then and then you have to go rescue them I'm talking about like an SOS transmission goes out to all Commanders them saying that our star is currently unstable and is close to going supernova and that we need any and all commanders to rescue us and if you messed around and was slow on it and you got there and then it went supernova as you were there then you would have to pay for a rebuy
I doubt we will ever see something like this, since supernovas are exceptionally rare. For reference, we only see a few supernovas every year, and most of the time they do not originate from our galaxy. Combine this with the fact that humans have only colonized about 0.01% of the in-game galaxy, and we now have an event that is very unlikely to occur in-game.
There is no reason why a shock wave in vacuum should move with (or even close to) the speed of sound in air(*) - no math required for that.
The speed of a supernova shock wave depends on the energy of the explosion of the star and on the mass of the matter flung away by it.
The expansion velocities of supernovas are several thousands of kilometers per second, typically around 10% of the speed of light.
Pluto's distance from the Sun is 5.9 billion km. So, at 10% of lightspeed, it would take (5.9*10^9 km) / (30*10^3 km/second) = 20*10^4 seconds = 55 hours.
Nope: in the above example the supernova would be visible on Pluto after five and a half hour, so there would be almost 50 hours to evacuate. In reality that would be insufficient (also: where would you go?), but in Elite with FSDs and hyperjumps that would be feasible.
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(*) In air (or any form of matter), a shock wave is by definition any wave which moves faster than the speed of sound.
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A supernova would be a one-off game event. It would significantly affect the system concerned and (eventually) those around it in a way that wouldn't be easy to model, although it could be scripted.
Apart from watching the explosion from the safety of supercruise I'm not sure there would be much gameplay in an expanding ball of plasma at sub-light speed and a new nebula in a few dozen years. We can already visit systems about to pop, and after they have popped.
If we're going down the 'destroy all the things' route it'd be much easier to have aliens do it imo.
Apart from watching the explosion from the safety of supercruise I'm not sure there would be much gameplay in an expanding ball of plasma at sub-light speed and a new nebula in a few dozen years. We can already visit systems about to pop, and after they have popped.
If we're going down the 'destroy all the things' route it'd be much easier to have aliens do it imo.
Agreed.
There would be one to three days of evacuating stations which are far enough from the star. Passenger and cargo missions with increasing pay-outs when the plasma ball gets close to the stations to be evacuated?
In Elite, we normally enter the system close to the heaviest body, in this case that would be the exploding star. So that might pose some extra "interesting" problem for the commander to avoid the incoming plasma front.
The system would be gone after the event, and depending on how long the lifespan (in years) of the game is, the neighboring systems too (but by that time we are probably playing Elite 5 / Elite: Deadly or perhaps even Elite 6 / Elite: Elite, depending on how close or far the neighbors of the exploding star are).
Anything new. Please.
Got it. Man, I love it when you talk Math like that.
And as you noted
So, arriving at that really hot left-over, then having to fly THROUGH the shock wave to get to Pluto would make things "interesting times."
If it WERE done (IF), it would really be short notice, and limited to two days (if this type of thing was done as a CG). Yeah, and I can see the complications cropping up all over the place. Still an interesting scenario.
I just remembered this video still existed. Very interesting look at what a supernova in a populated system might look like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9OCaGFoQEU
Freelancer, director's cut intro. Loved playing it."They" arrive at 4:20.
Illudium Q-38 Explosive Space Modulator goes Ka-BOOM at 5:48.
Supernova goes off shortly after.
Seriously, if any video game should be made into a movie, this is that game. I ran though it so fast because it was like a book you couldn't put down - couldn't wait to see what happens next. And they REALLY should have left THIS version of the into in at the beginning of the game. Great Ka-BOOM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9OCaGFoQEU
Freelancer, director's cut intro. Loved playing it."They" arrive at 4:20.
Illudium Q-38 Explosive Space Modulator goes Ka-BOOM at 5:48.
Supernova goes off shortly after.
Seriously, if any video game should be made into a movie, this is that game. I ran though it so fast because it was like a book you couldn't put down - couldn't wait to see what happens next. And they REALLY should have left THIS version of the into in at the beginning of the game. Great Ka-BOOM.
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