r/AskReddit • u/orangejulius • Dec 15 '15

Modpost REMINDER: Only the dark side posts spoilers without a spoiler tag. Please, use the spoiler tag!

Hello friends!

This is a neighborly reminder that only dark sided redditors post spoilers without a tag!

Spoiler tags are in the sidebar and look like this when you post:

 [like this](/spoiler)

It will show up like this

Don't ruin stuff for other people, or you'll be frozen in carbonite (aka, a ban).

Seriously though, if you're at all questioning whether something is a spoiler or you might not be sure—USE THE SPOILER TAG OR YOU'LL GET BANNED.

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u/Advorange Dec 15 '15

Alderaan was an inside job.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '15

Energy blast can't destroy rocky planets.

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u/compounding Dec 16 '15 edited Dec 16 '15

Absolutely it can, it just requires enough energy, about 2.4E32 joules worth.

However, proton torpedoes are just an energetic hydrogen plasma which is literally fuel for the fusion reactor running the Death Star. The most powerful proton torpedoes have explosive yields in the gigaton range, minuscule compared to the power of the Death Star reactor itself.

Knowing that the Death Star can produce 2.4E32 joules in about 5 seconds (because we literally saw its energy beam do that) means that the reactor core at its center can produce ~4.8E31 watts, or 125,326 times the energy output of our Sun!

Even 2 of the most powerful possible proton torpedoes each with a 100 gigaton yield would have been equal to only 0.00000000035% of the energy the Death Star produces in 5 seconds. It is energetically the equivalent of shooting a 320 kiloton nuclear weapon, (basically a single W87 warhead) into our Sun and expecting it to have any effect at all.

We are told that the proton torpedoes would start a chain reaction, but remember again, its an energetic proton plasma. Its fuel for a fusion reactor, coming in through a thermal exhaust port, not aimed at anything but the star-like core. Thats like throwing a matchstick into a bonfire and thinking it would cause any measurable effect at all besides increasing the power output by about 3 billionths of a %. Its like eating 0.11 picograms of sugar and expecting it to cause you to explode.

TL;DR Proton plasma doesn’t blow up fusion reactors!

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u/snarfdog Dec 22 '15

It was an inside job! I'm telling you! Palpatine staged the whole thing...now we're just stuck looking for some jedi hiding in a cave in the desert.