Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-26-2014, 07:39 PM   #21
cptbutton
 
cptbutton's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
I'd think there's a fairly straightforward if physically improbable way to get the required effect.

Lethal neutrino flux.

If you sweep earth that way there's going to be some serious property damage.
Xkcd says not to worry about neutrino flux, if you are that close you are already inside the star going supernova, and neutrinos are the least of your problems.
cptbutton is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2014, 07:40 PM   #22
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

Quote:
Originally Posted by robkelk View Post
Consider Beta Hydri. I don't know whether it's a supernova candidate, .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Hydri

...has Beta Hydri being barely more massive than the Sun. It won't even make a decent Red Giant.

If you want a future supernova you need to go here....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antares

....and even at 15-18 solar masses Antares won't make a top rank boom. It is the closes tone I know of and the Wiki article implies the same.

It's also 550 ly distant which is about the same distance of the Geminga pulsar. That's a supernova remnant from about 30,000 years ago. No really big mass extinctions tied to that time period.

A parallel Earth with a supernova candidate close enough to be really dangerous is going to be highly variant in terms of local astronomy. Gurps Space 4e puts the sort of Type O stars you need at 1 in 3,000,000 in our neighborhood.
__________________
Fred Brackin
Fred Brackin is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2014, 07:53 PM   #23
cptbutton
 
cptbutton's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Hydri

...has Beta Hydri being barely more massive than the Sun. It won't even make a decent Red Giant.
Though that was the premise of the anime Stellvia of the Universe. Earth is devastated by the lightspeed radiation of the supernova Beta Hydri, and 200 years later they are preparing a defense against the matter shockwave.

(The numbers don't work, but they do drag in some Weird Physics later on to help explain it.)
cptbutton is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2014, 07:53 PM   #24
robkelk
Untitled
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

So a supernova is pretty much out, without variant astronomy.

(At least we've reduced the number of things to worry about by one...)
__________________
Rob Kelk
“Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.”
– Bernard Baruch,
Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950
No longer reading these forums regularly.
robkelk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2014, 07:54 PM   #25
robkelk
Untitled
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

Quote:
Originally Posted by cptbutton View Post
Though that was the premise of the anime Stellvia of the Universe. Earth is devastated by the lightspeed radiation of the supernova Beta Hydri, and 200 years later they are preparing a defense against the matter shockwave.

(The numbers don't work, but they do drag in some Weird Physics later on to help explain it.)
Which is where I got it from, actually. And the physics is very weird - but not impossible.
__________________
Rob Kelk
“Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.”
– Bernard Baruch,
Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950
No longer reading these forums regularly.
robkelk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2014, 08:12 PM   #26
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

One could always leave the exact source of the radiation burst undetermined over the course of the game.
Without knowing what caused it, players might rationally feel that it could happen again at any moment.
The handful of astronomers studying the alternate might each have their own idea, and thus divide the limited research resources.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2014, 08:32 PM   #27
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

Quote:
Originally Posted by cptbutton View Post
Xkcd says not to worry about neutrino flux, if you are that close you are already inside the star going supernova, and neutrinos are the least of your problems.
No, it says not to worry about neutrino flux from a nearby supernova.

That's why I said physically improbable. Getting a neutrino flux like that anywhere that isn't simultaneously being destroyed in other ways would be really bizarre.

But it would let you deliver lethal radiation poisoning to the entire Earth biosphere simultaneously.
__________________
I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident.
Ulzgoroth is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2014, 09:43 PM   #28
tantric
Banned
 
tantric's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Athens, GA
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

Hmm - alternate means of destroying the ozone layer...solar flares, sudden reversals of the magnetic poles, antimatter meteors, multimegaton nukes in the upper atmosphere, ozone eating alien microbes, am I forgetting anything? No SciFi writers' guild, I wasn't asking you.
tantric is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2014, 09:53 PM   #29
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

A smallish comet full of ozone depleting chemicals is at least possible if rather unlikely.
The scientists of the alternate expecting one type of disaster and get an even worse unexpected one.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-26-2014, 10:11 PM   #30
Vaevictis Asmadi
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota, U.S.A.
Default Re: [IW] Imagining Lucifer-3

Well according to the Wikipedia article on the Permo-Triassic extinction, widespread ocean anoxia can encourage anaerobic green sulfur bacteria to produce tons of H2S, which damages the ozone if it gets into the atmosphere (besides just generally being toxic).


Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
If you sweep earth that way there's going to be some serious property damage.
They did say they're looting the ruins of Lucifer-3. Only really hitting one hemisphere is a bigger argument against it.

I'm liking the "colliding binary neutron stars" idea.
__________________
I have Confused and Clueless. Sometimes I miss sarcasm and humor, or critically fail my Savoir-Faire roll. None of it is intentional.

Published GURPS Settings
(as of 4/2013 -- I hope to update it someday...)

Last edited by Vaevictis Asmadi; 03-26-2014 at 10:19 PM.
Vaevictis Asmadi is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
gamma ray bursts, infinite worlds, lucifer-3, supernova

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:49 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.