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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):


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 Galan007
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 Very 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?

There is no comparison. The beam(s) generated by Starkiller Base are *the* fastest things ever conceived in canon:



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

I'm still amazed that Starkiller base was powered soley by Galen Marek.

https://i.imgur.com/P5xoghK.gif

Originally posted by One Big Mob
I'm still amazed that Starkiller base was powered soley by Galen Marek.
new headcanon

Lol They ever explain how people across the galaxy were able to see the beam light in real time years away?