Supernovas and their effects

[Hati Hroovitnisson]

Fairly simple premise for this topic: I'm actually not familliar with the effects of supernova on the planets around them. What happens to rocky planets and gas giants in the different kinds of supernova? and how would they be represented in Universe Sandbox?

[Deadpangod3]

For starters, they'd freeze, atmospheres on rocky planets would freeze and fall to the ground, but I don't know about gas giants.

[newhalo123]

For starters, they'd freeze, atmospheres on rocky planets would freeze and fall to the ground, but I don't know about gas giants.

I'm sure that the initial blast would melt the surface of the planet first, before the planet freezes. I looked up online what would happen if our sun suddenly went supernova, (which will not happen btw) and found that most people agree that it would melt the Earth's land and boil the oceans away, leaving only a big ball of lava, basically. Even Mars would be screwed. It would take a couple years for the surface to cool back down, but when it does, it would be a smooth ball of rock.

To answer the OP, I hope that eventually the supernovas in the game will project extremely intense heat. Right now, they do diddly squat besides sending off the planets into deep space.

[Hati Hroovitnisson]

thats what I'm wondering, what does the blast from a supernova do to orbiting planets? If the sun detonated what would happen to earth? is the blast strong enough to strip Jupiter? For different stars and supernovae, how do their effects differ? does the blast wave push planets out or violently rip them apart? I don't know and really not sure where to look. Google is less than handy when you need something obscure and all the key words are used in something else thats frequently googled.

Its like trying to google "list of nuclear devices" when you're not looking for nuclear bombs but a list of things that use nuclear decay to do something -- for example a nuclear clock.

"Effects of supernova on planets" gives me opinion pieces, no actual scientific hypothesis.

[Deadpangod3]

I conducted a test in the game, I poured hydrogen onto the sun and while it was bigger the Earth's temperature rose to around 70 C or 50 C then kaboom and it slowly cooled and froze.

I didn't check the other planets though, but I am assuming mercury got at least a little molten.

And supernovas and my computer do not go together well... Much lag.

[Xriqxa]

thats what I'm wondering, what does the blast from a supernova do to orbiting planets?

Close ones will get their surfaces ripped apart in a nova, but in the case of a supernova I would think everything would be vaporized.

If the sun detonated what would happen to earth?

Mercury would be destroyed (and possible Venus), and Earth's surface would be burned off. Mars may not be affected physically, but it would certainly experience a change of some some sort, such as it's surface melting.

is the blast strong enough to strip Jupiter?

Far from it. by the time the blast got that far it would have dissipated.   

For different stars and supernovae, how do their effects differ?

They only differ by force, mass exerted, heat, and mass distribution. 

does the blast wave push planets out or violently rip them apart?

Unless the gas was impossibly dense, it would only be able to do the tiniest change to the planet's orbit.

[Jar]

Great questions.  We're working on answering them in the upcoming alpha builds. 

For example, we're in the initial stages of having the initial supernova wave affect planets' atmospheres and surface temperatures.

[newhalo123]

Great questions.  We're working on answering them in the upcoming alpha builds. 

For example, we're in the initial stages of having the initial supernova wave affect planets' atmospheres and surface temperatures.

Sweet!