Quote:
Originally Posted by Pomphis
Why not? There were flares (plural). Each one could have been directional, but each in a different direction.
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Traveller's "to hit" modifiers for hitting a given target using light speed weaponry (aka lasers) will give you a hint of sorts. We're talking about hitting worlds with a precision where the distances aren't measured in light seconds, but in light years. Granted, the targets are larger than starships - but those pulses have to hit as a wave capable of engulfing an entire star system to achieve what was described in a role playing source book written in 1987.
No fault to the writers in the sense that they just didn't know - but 30 years later, I'm questioning it via the internet (which didn't exist then) and asking people whose science background is far better than mine (something presumably the writers of the original source book did not have).
If the energy levels capable of an EMP affecting star systems some 6 parsecs away were applied to the world that was 1 AU away - one estimate was that it would vaporize some 6 meters worth of water. I don't know the math, but I trust the poster enough to say "good enough for government work"
It would essentially destroy the biosphere of the world.