If we saw a Death Star fire the superlaser at us, how long would we have until we wer
If we saw a Death Star fire the superlaser at us, how long would we have until we were destroyed?
The station would be closer to us than the sun, but the speed of the laser is unknown (at least from what I could find), so would it be only seconds? Or could it be a minute or two?
The Death Star fired on Alderaan from "antigrav range"(approx. six planetary diameters away):
A voice announced over a hidden speaker that they had approached within antigrav range of Alderaan--approximately six planetary diameters. That was enough to accomplish what all of Vader's infernal devices had failed to.-ANH (novelization)
And per Star Wars Super Graphic, the diameter of Alderaan = 12,500km -- which means the Death Star was 75,000km from Alderaan when it fired. That said, the Death Star's beam takes about 2 seconds to hit Alderaan in the film. Given the distance between them, this equates to a 'beam-speed' of 37,500km/s... Or ~0.125c (ie. 1/8 light speed.)
tl;dr
If the Death Star were near the sun and fired at earth, the planet would be destroyed just over an hour later. 🙂
/nerdcalcs
Originally posted by Galan007Very interesting. sp how does that compare to the speed of Starkiller bases superweapon? I remember one of the resistance's forces describing it as a "hyper lightspeed" beam or something, right?
The Death Star fired on Alderaan from "antigrav range"(approx. six planetary diameters away):And per Star Wars Super Graphic, the diameter of Alderaan = 12,500km -- which means the Death Star was 75,000km from Alderaan when it fired. That said, the Death Star's beam takes about 2 seconds to hit Alderaan in the film. Given the distance between them, this equates to a 'beam-speed' of 37,500km/s... Or ~0.125c (ie. 1/8 light speed.)
tl;dr
If the Death Star were near the sun and fired at earth, the planet would be destroyed just over an hour later. 🙂/nerdcalcs
There is no comparison. The beam(s) generated by Starkiller Base are *the* fastest things ever conceived in canon:
Assuming that the rotation and inclination of the planet had been taken into account, the released blast of concentrated phantom energy would travel along a perfectly linear path, punching a small rip through hyperspace itself until it left the galaxy--or encountered something in its path that was of sufficient mass to intercept it [...] Traveling faster than anything ever generated by artificial means, through a torn portion of space-time whose properties were not fully understood, the concentrated glowing ball of energy lit the night sky above Republic City.-TFA (novelization)
Keep in mind, Starkiller Base was located in the Unknown Regions, and Hosnian Prime was located deep in the Galactic Core -- literally tenS of thousandS of light yearS apart:
https://i.imgur.com/aQpLcv6.jpg
*pertinent planets outlined in red
...Yet it only took the beams about 1 minute to cover that distance in the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HmWDdmTAE8&t=1m3s
"Hyper-lightspeed" undersells the shit out of it, tbh. ermm
