so
PHYSICS OF IDE IMPOSSIBLE
first. The burst of X-rays from this hydrogen bomb can then be refocused onto a second piece of lithium deuteride, creating a third explosion. In this way, one could stack lithium deuteride side by side and
create a hydrogen bomb of unimaginable magnitude. In fact, the
largest hydrogen bomb ever built was a two-stage bomb detonated by
the Soviet Union back in 1961, packing the energy of 50 million tons of
TNT, although it was theoretically capable of a blast of over 100 million tons of TNT (or about five thousand times the power of the Hiroshima bomb).
To incinerate an entire planet, however, is something of an entirely
different magnitude. For this, the Death Star would have to launch
thousands of such X-ray lasers into space, and they would then be required to fire all at once. (By comparison, remember that at the height
of the cold war the United States and the Soviet Union each accumulated about thirty thousand nuclear bombs.) The collective energy
from such an enormous number of X-ray lasers would be enough to
incinerate the surface of a planet. So it would certainly be possible for
a Galactic Empire hundreds of thousands of years into the future to
create such a weapon.
For a very advanced civilization, there is a second option: to create
a Death Star using the energy of a gamma ray burster. Such a Death
Star would unleash a burst of radiation second only to the big bang.
Gamma ray bursters occur naturally in outer space, but it is conceivable that an advanced civilization could harness their vast power. By
controlling the spin of a star well before it undergoes a collapse and
unleashes a hypernova, one might be able to aim the gamma ray
burster at any point in space.
GAMMA RAY BURSTERS
Gamma ray bursters were actually first seen in the 1970s, when the
U.S. military launched the Vela satellite to detect "nukeflashes" (evidence of an unauthorized detonation of a nuclear bomb). But instead
of spotting nukeflashes, the Vela satellite detected huge bursts of radi-
PHYSICS OF IDE IMPOSSIBLE
first. The burst of X-rays from this hydrogen bomb can then be refocused onto a second piece of lithium deuteride, creating a third explosion. In this way, one could stack lithium deuteride side by side and
create a hydrogen bomb of unimaginable magnitude. In fact, the
largest hydrogen bomb ever built was a two-stage bomb detonated by
the Soviet Union back in 1961, packing the energy of 50 million tons of
TNT, although it was theoretically capable of a blast of over 100 million tons of TNT (or about five thousand times the power of the Hiroshima bomb).
To incinerate an entire planet, however, is something of an entirely
different magnitude. For this, the Death Star would have to launch
thousands of such X-ray lasers into space, and they would then be required to fire all at once. (By comparison, remember that at the height
of the cold war the United States and the Soviet Union each accumulated about thirty thousand nuclear bombs.) The collective energy
from such an enormous number of X-ray lasers would be enough to
incinerate the surface of a planet. So it would certainly be possible for
a Galactic Empire hundreds of thousands of years into the future to
create such a weapon.
For a very advanced civilization, there is a second option: to create
a Death Star using the energy of a gamma ray burster. Such a Death
Star would unleash a burst of radiation second only to the big bang.
Gamma ray bursters occur naturally in outer space, but it is conceivable that an advanced civilization could harness their vast power. By
controlling the spin of a star well before it undergoes a collapse and
unleashes a hypernova, one might be able to aim the gamma ray
burster at any point in space.
GAMMA RAY BURSTERS
Gamma ray bursters were actually first seen in the 1970s, when the
U.S. military launched the Vela satellite to detect "nukeflashes" (evidence of an unauthorized detonation of a nuclear bomb). But instead
of spotting nukeflashes, the Vela satellite detected huge bursts of radi-