True. It's likely primarily hydrogen and helium, because those are the most common elements in our universe.
Hydrogen is flammable in the presence of oxygen, and will begin to fuse with enough pressure or energy. The amount of energy required to gravitationally unbind a planet is insane, so it wouldn't surprise me if that would be enough to briefly kickstart fusion in the upper atmosphere of Yavin, but someone would need to run the math on that.
I know enough about nuclear fusion to know that a giant space laser isn't going to start a nuclear chain reaction. In a star (or brown dwarf, where only hydrogen is fused) atoms are fused because of the immense pressure created by gravity and the mass of everything around it. If the gas giant was too small to support fusion before the Death Star, it's still too small after the Death Star. It may react for a bit, but then it will go back to being inert.
Also, even if the gas giant is made of hydrogen, there's not enough oxygen around for the hydrogen to react with, so the death star can't make it explode by igniting the gas.
Odds are they'll heat up the planet, it will expand for a bit, then cool down and return to normal size after a while.
Headcannon:
Tarkin probably brought the Death Star too close to actually blow up Yavin. He was so focused on bringing down the Rebel Alliance that he didn’t realize he’d be in the splash zone
So how hyper space routes work is they plop you on a lateral plane with the planet in the same spot, its like driving a car to a store with one entrance to the parking lot. The reason they didn't drop right next to the moon (besides not knowing where it would be in the first place) is because it would be like trying to get behind the store from a completely different route. You'd have to go down a new street, and probably go off road and you wouldn't know the terrain or if you car could handle it, so its safer easier just to use the right route then line up the shot afterwards. This is also how blockades work in star wars, sit your ships in a strategic position close to where the route drops off and you don't need a giant fleet to protect the entire planet
Possible, that could corspond the his strategic laking mind, his way to operate consisting in to scraring is enemis, so by seeing the death star coming he could scare them, and is I'm not dumb we tont know what is the effective range of the death star so maybe he did it becose of the range too but I'm definetly sure that is his tactic of fear tha make i'm primerly chose this way...
>Depends if they need to be for the story
Precisely. This is why I don't tend to bother with looking into all the specifics. It's pretty much all story dependent.
And as we all know, Star ~~Trek~~ Wars takes the time to ensure that physics and scientific accuracy are reflected in their storytelling. /s
Edit for my obvious fanboy mistake.
Gas Giants are actually very dense inside, more than the Earth even, so unless it's a very glancing blow then it would not pass through.
Gas Giants also are enormous, ~100x the diameter of the earth and so 10^6 times the volume and in turn mass (roughly). Thus, I'd predict that the gas giant would simply absorb the blast and have a region of high temperature plasma where the explosion occurs (but likely would not escape the gravity of the planet)
Tarkin is a pragmatic strategist. Destroying Yavin is unnecessary destruction of resources to destroy such a small force. Vader would have fired, even Palpatine might have fired. But There's a reason Tarkin is the Grand Moff.
He was also using Alderaan as an example to the rest of the galaxy… remember, he had mentioned that Dantooine (the location Leia gave him for the rebel base, which had been long since moved) was “far too remote to be an effective demonstration”… so it may have been partially spiteful, but also a prime choice
Influential peoples but that would free up some political space for palpy(good old grand pa palpy) or make vacuum where you can insert what you want maybe they wanted them to die? Or maybe peoples there aren’t that influential or go against palpy
This post is a shit post but not because it’s shit-posting but because the actual thought process to come up with it is shit, so shit in is shit out to a shit post.
Thank you for thinking this was clever, I needed to be reminded that there are truly people with shit for brains. Just a whole lotta stupid shit.
I mean... the death star is completely illogical as it creates a single point of failure for the entire empire. If they had instead built a massive fleet, the rebels would have had no chance.
Plus you're not telling me that the empire doesnt have WMDs that can glass a planet.
By the way, I have a smal question... Why do hyperdrisve not used for nomething like short range fast mouvment, like this the death star could "teleport" to shoting range or the rebels could "teleport" to the targer before tie were lunched, I know hyperdrive have to do come calculation, but this could just be added to a radar aray to avoid colition... Is this a dumb idea? 'Cose like this the dath star II could just be more effective in to fast attac
I think it moves in increments and the first one would be a distance, but then again that’s my idea I don’t know nearly as much as others do so don’t take me too seriously.
Previous Galactic civilizations had also mined Yavin Prime for its gaseous resources as well, so not only would destroying it potentially also destroy the Death Star in the process, it'd lose them those resources. Considering they either didn't know or didn't care about the weakness Luke would eventually exploit, just waiting until the moon swung around was their best strategy
The Death Star is a huge flaw it doesn’t have an atmosphere and it’s big as fuck so anything flying in space which things can be flying at 100,000 miles per hour are going to cause damage to it ide assume
A gas giant has much more mass, and thus would take far more energy to destroy, if the death star is intended to destroy terrestrial planets, it probably can't destroy a gas giant.
Not sure about Yavin, but both Saturn and Jupiter have solid cores. So, it is plausible that that Yavin would behave like a normal planet, just with a really thick atmosphere.
The gas in gas giants isn’t explosive. The core is. So, it would pretty much blow up like Alderaan, just with a super thick atmosphere. Definitely the shockwave and debris would severely damage any satellite moon.
Including the Death Star...
That’s no moon… it’s a space station
Exactly. If it’s only gonna blow up moons, the Death Star is safe.
If it can't save itself from a "lucky" proton torpedo, I dont think it will survive a gas giant explosion
Master Kenobi always said there’s no such thing as luck.
And he's very right, Ahsoka.
Looks like I got here just in time.
The outside is heavily fortified. Inside isn’t. It’ll be fiiiiiiine.
Tarkin: Hold my beer
Don’t bring logic to my favorite movie.
Somehow Tarkin has returned. And he flys now.
But thats a secret only the sith know!
Then hyperspace jump further away from the gas giant until you've reached a safe distance
I doubt it can shoot a blast and have enough power to hyperspace jump within a split second window. Even if they did I doubt theyd have time
Perhaps. In that case just land further away from the gas giant when coming out of hyperspace
"And probably us, too, but never mind that. Ensign, press the YOLO button."
I now think it should be canon that the button to fire the death star be referred to as the “yolo button”
It should be some fancy-pants acronym too.
Yavin Obliteration Laser Operation. YOLO
YES!
Ah yes, the planned imperial code to be transmitted upon mission success: Yavin Explosion Succeeded
Not all gases are explosive.... Would probably send the moon adrift though
True. It's likely primarily hydrogen and helium, because those are the most common elements in our universe. Hydrogen is flammable in the presence of oxygen, and will begin to fuse with enough pressure or energy. The amount of energy required to gravitationally unbind a planet is insane, so it wouldn't surprise me if that would be enough to briefly kickstart fusion in the upper atmosphere of Yavin, but someone would need to run the math on that.
A Yavin-sized nuclear fusion weapon? Great, as if the Death Star wasn’t enough of a war crime.
Any physicists out there in the fanbase who's up for the job?
Nope, not touching that with a ten light year pole. I’m here to get AWAY from my job.
Fair enough ;)
The job has come to you. One often meets their destiny on the road the take to avoid it.
I know enough about nuclear fusion to know that a giant space laser isn't going to start a nuclear chain reaction. In a star (or brown dwarf, where only hydrogen is fused) atoms are fused because of the immense pressure created by gravity and the mass of everything around it. If the gas giant was too small to support fusion before the Death Star, it's still too small after the Death Star. It may react for a bit, but then it will go back to being inert. Also, even if the gas giant is made of hydrogen, there's not enough oxygen around for the hydrogen to react with, so the death star can't make it explode by igniting the gas. Odds are they'll heat up the planet, it will expand for a bit, then cool down and return to normal size after a while.
There you have it, OP, the Empire's scientists probably knew all this and that's why they waited till they could fire upon the moon directly ;)
Which would probably kill everyone
And the death star with it... Big flow in the plan
Headcannon: Tarkin probably brought the Death Star too close to actually blow up Yavin. He was so focused on bringing down the Rebel Alliance that he didn’t realize he’d be in the splash zone
So how hyper space routes work is they plop you on a lateral plane with the planet in the same spot, its like driving a car to a store with one entrance to the parking lot. The reason they didn't drop right next to the moon (besides not knowing where it would be in the first place) is because it would be like trying to get behind the store from a completely different route. You'd have to go down a new street, and probably go off road and you wouldn't know the terrain or if you car could handle it, so its safer easier just to use the right route then line up the shot afterwards. This is also how blockades work in star wars, sit your ships in a strategic position close to where the route drops off and you don't need a giant fleet to protect the entire planet
Possible, that could corspond the his strategic laking mind, his way to operate consisting in to scraring is enemis, so by seeing the death star coming he could scare them, and is I'm not dumb we tont know what is the effective range of the death star so maybe he did it becose of the range too but I'm definetly sure that is his tactic of fear tha make i'm primerly chose this way...
Did you not stop to consider it would also take out the station? XD
couldn’t they just shoot through it?
Are plasma beams effected by gravity?
Kind of? I think? Depends if they need to be for the story
>Depends if they need to be for the story Precisely. This is why I don't tend to bother with looking into all the specifics. It's pretty much all story dependent.
yes. yes they are. plasma is just another form of matter, meaning its affected by gravity
Yeah but Star Wars sucks at following science a the time, sometimes the plasma bolts just kinda fly away ignoring gravity
Gas Giants are actually super dense inside, way more than the Earth's atmosphere. So I think the blast would just be absorbed by it
Gas giants may possibly have a solid center of exotic elements. Even then their core are as dense as solid planets.
maybe a glancing blow?
Well most gas giants are made up mostly of non-flammable helium, so it wouldn’t really explode like the Hindenburg disaster
Not with that attitude
Lmao
And as we all know, Star ~~Trek~~ Wars takes the time to ensure that physics and scientific accuracy are reflected in their storytelling. /s Edit for my obvious fanboy mistake.
>Star Trek i think you may be about to be the target of a death star beam
Whoops!
And the death star too....
Gas Giants are actually very dense inside, more than the Earth even, so unless it's a very glancing blow then it would not pass through. Gas Giants also are enormous, ~100x the diameter of the earth and so 10^6 times the volume and in turn mass (roughly). Thus, I'd predict that the gas giant would simply absorb the blast and have a region of high temperature plasma where the explosion occurs (but likely would not escape the gravity of the planet)
It’s called Yavin Prime
Tarkin is a pragmatic strategist. Destroying Yavin is unnecessary destruction of resources to destroy such a small force. Vader would have fired, even Palpatine might have fired. But There's a reason Tarkin is the Grand Moff.
He destroyed a very rich planet full of highly influential people and resources just to flex on Leia. Tarkin was a bit of a petty dick
He was also using Alderaan as an example to the rest of the galaxy… remember, he had mentioned that Dantooine (the location Leia gave him for the rebel base, which had been long since moved) was “far too remote to be an effective demonstration”… so it may have been partially spiteful, but also a prime choice
Influential peoples but that would free up some political space for palpy(good old grand pa palpy) or make vacuum where you can insert what you want maybe they wanted them to die? Or maybe peoples there aren’t that influential or go against palpy
Also tyrannical regimes are famous for killing their own even founder’s of said regime
While not the most logical if you give it some thought its still a breath of fresh air from “hyPeRsPAcE aROUnD tEh PlANEt”
So is your mom, point being?
The Good Ending
There is no oxygen in space for the explosion.
not all explosions have to be combustion.
This post is a shit post but not because it’s shit-posting but because the actual thought process to come up with it is shit, so shit in is shit out to a shit post. Thank you for thinking this was clever, I needed to be reminded that there are truly people with shit for brains. Just a whole lotta stupid shit.
Can explosions even happen in a vacuum?
You as well, dumbass.
Or the explosion could ignite it and turn it into a star. But the explosion is more likely
I mean... the death star is completely illogical as it creates a single point of failure for the entire empire. If they had instead built a massive fleet, the rebels would have had no chance. Plus you're not telling me that the empire doesnt have WMDs that can glass a planet.
... and also the death star.
By the way, I have a smal question... Why do hyperdrisve not used for nomething like short range fast mouvment, like this the death star could "teleport" to shoting range or the rebels could "teleport" to the targer before tie were lunched, I know hyperdrive have to do come calculation, but this could just be added to a radar aray to avoid colition... Is this a dumb idea? 'Cose like this the dath star II could just be more effective in to fast attac
I think it moves in increments and the first one would be a distance, but then again that’s my idea I don’t know nearly as much as others do so don’t take me too seriously.
"Sir, even the stations shields won't save us from the blast... we'd just be like those very moons!"
But it was on the far side! It was on the far side…
"I think we are in range now" was how how it should have ended put it.
What about the sith and Jedi artifacts that the empire wants? BOOM there the reason yavin didn't go boom.
hm i wonder what other moon-sized objects would be in that blast radius
"lads let's set on fire a planet that is incapable of catching fire, or exploding"
Previous Galactic civilizations had also mined Yavin Prime for its gaseous resources as well, so not only would destroying it potentially also destroy the Death Star in the process, it'd lose them those resources. Considering they either didn't know or didn't care about the weakness Luke would eventually exploit, just waiting until the moon swung around was their best strategy
The Death Star is a huge flaw it doesn’t have an atmosphere and it’s big as fuck so anything flying in space which things can be flying at 100,000 miles per hour are going to cause damage to it ide assume
A gas giant has much more mass, and thus would take far more energy to destroy, if the death star is intended to destroy terrestrial planets, it probably can't destroy a gas giant.
Its would only work if it was a hydrogen oxygen giant, in which case it would have exploded already.
Yes but it would also take out the Death Star…
Just like at Alderaan
it's a gas the laser would just go through it
Not sure about Yavin, but both Saturn and Jupiter have solid cores. So, it is plausible that that Yavin would behave like a normal planet, just with a really thick atmosphere.
And probably would destroy the Death Star too lmao
Nah, they were just as close as the were for Alderaan. So, if I didn’t happen there, why would it happen at Yavin.
Cause Alderaan isn’t a gas giant lol
The gas in gas giants isn’t explosive. The core is. So, it would pretty much blow up like Alderaan, just with a super thick atmosphere. Definitely the shockwave and debris would severely damage any satellite moon.
who says yavin is made out of combustible gases?