Post by redsycorax on Jul 7, 2023 4:40:56 GMT
When a star of the sun's mass passes a particular tipping point of hydrogen/helium fuel conversion within its core, it then begins to prodigiously expand into a red giant star. Our own sun will start down this road in around five hundred million years, when the average temperature on Earth will pass the boiling point of water, which means Earth will lose its oceans and atmosphere and eventually turn into an airless analogue of Venus. It is estimated that the red giant sun may consume Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth, although if humanity has survived, it will have shifted out and terraformed Mars, Jupiter's large Gallilean satellites and Saturn's larger satellites, or left the solar system altogether. After five billion more years, the sun will undergo a helium flash that will throw its superheated surface layers into space and dwindle down into a white dwarf. After quadrillions of years more, it will have become a totally inert, dead black dwarf, as cold as the absolute zero of interstellar space.
Stars larger than our sun expand further, into supergiants, and when they go up, the results are supernovae. They end up as neutron stars or black holes. And some of them are red.
Supernovae are ambiguous. If they occur distantly enough from any inhabited planetary system, no problem. They may even be responsible for heavy elements permeating the formation of subsequent solar system planets. If they're closer in and there's a protoplanetary system forming around a protostar, the shockwave may be enough to cause the disruption of the protoplanetary disc and cause damage to the developing protostar, although at a certain stage of development, developing solar systems may have undergone enough consolidation to survive such impacts.
So, what happens when an adjacent giant or supergiant star goes supernova in the present day, or near it, in the DC universe? Let's say something like this happens. Superman gets a transtemporal message from the Legion of Super Heroes- Brainiac 5 tells him that one of the adjacent candidate giants or supergiants has just gone supernova in the twenty first century according to thirty first century historical records and star charts, and he has to act now to prevent any threat to solar systems in its path- probably Earth, Rann or any of the inhabited planets of Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eridani or Epsilon Indi. If it's a white or blue giant or supergiant that's gone supernova, then no problem- Superman and any other convivial Kryptonian or Daxamite could deal with the consequences and divert the damage away from those, or any other, inhabited planets. IK Pegasi, Spica, Alpha Lupi and Rigel fall into these categories:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_supernova
However, in the worst case scenario, what happens if the supernovae was caused by a red giant or supergiant? (Although an orange giant or supergiant explosion would significantly reduce Kryptonian and Daxamite superpowers too). According this handy Wikipedia guide, there are several candidates for such a problematic event:
Antares, a red supergiant star five and fifty light years from our solar system. Its diameter means that it would fit between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in our own solar system if it replaced our sun. Okay, now we have problems, given the damage that high velocity interstellar dust and debris would cause to any exoplanets within its trajectory. If Antares went supernova, the interstellar dust and debris wouldn't reach our solar system until the late twenty sixth century, but how would Superman, Supergirl, Mon-El or any comparable metahumans deal with the threat, given that red suns remove their metahuman abilities?: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antares
Betelguese is about the same distance away from us and is also a red supergiant. Worryingly, it is currently displaying apparent instability and may have already exploded. It's also a red supergiant and would provide similar difficulties. Again, Superman, Supergirl, Mon-El and other suitably powerful metahumans would have to travel to the late twenty sixth century to deal with the outcome of any Betelguese supernova. However, as with Antares above, what would happen once they got there?: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelguese
Stars larger than our sun expand further, into supergiants, and when they go up, the results are supernovae. They end up as neutron stars or black holes. And some of them are red.
Supernovae are ambiguous. If they occur distantly enough from any inhabited planetary system, no problem. They may even be responsible for heavy elements permeating the formation of subsequent solar system planets. If they're closer in and there's a protoplanetary system forming around a protostar, the shockwave may be enough to cause the disruption of the protoplanetary disc and cause damage to the developing protostar, although at a certain stage of development, developing solar systems may have undergone enough consolidation to survive such impacts.
So, what happens when an adjacent giant or supergiant star goes supernova in the present day, or near it, in the DC universe? Let's say something like this happens. Superman gets a transtemporal message from the Legion of Super Heroes- Brainiac 5 tells him that one of the adjacent candidate giants or supergiants has just gone supernova in the twenty first century according to thirty first century historical records and star charts, and he has to act now to prevent any threat to solar systems in its path- probably Earth, Rann or any of the inhabited planets of Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eridani or Epsilon Indi. If it's a white or blue giant or supergiant that's gone supernova, then no problem- Superman and any other convivial Kryptonian or Daxamite could deal with the consequences and divert the damage away from those, or any other, inhabited planets. IK Pegasi, Spica, Alpha Lupi and Rigel fall into these categories:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_supernova
However, in the worst case scenario, what happens if the supernovae was caused by a red giant or supergiant? (Although an orange giant or supergiant explosion would significantly reduce Kryptonian and Daxamite superpowers too). According this handy Wikipedia guide, there are several candidates for such a problematic event:
Antares, a red supergiant star five and fifty light years from our solar system. Its diameter means that it would fit between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in our own solar system if it replaced our sun. Okay, now we have problems, given the damage that high velocity interstellar dust and debris would cause to any exoplanets within its trajectory. If Antares went supernova, the interstellar dust and debris wouldn't reach our solar system until the late twenty sixth century, but how would Superman, Supergirl, Mon-El or any comparable metahumans deal with the threat, given that red suns remove their metahuman abilities?: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antares
Betelguese is about the same distance away from us and is also a red supergiant. Worryingly, it is currently displaying apparent instability and may have already exploded. It's also a red supergiant and would provide similar difficulties. Again, Superman, Supergirl, Mon-El and other suitably powerful metahumans would have to travel to the late twenty sixth century to deal with the outcome of any Betelguese supernova. However, as with Antares above, what would happen once they got there?: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelguese
