If A Star Destroyer From “star Wars” Crash-landed On A Planet, Would It Devastate The Planet?
Would it be like a meteor or comet slamming into the planet?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Destro…
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My inner nerd surges out when I read questions like this, so I have to suppress the manic glee inside me when I write this answer.
It would honestly depend on WHY it crashed in the first place. If it lost control or something like that, to the end that it was entering the atmosphere in 1 piece, then it would likely break into many pieces with 1 or 2 large pieces. The smaller pieces would burn up due to the friction caused by the atmospheric pressures of whatever planet it is landing on (at least presuming it had an atmosphere similar to earth’s… In the Star Wars universe, there are infinite planets with infinite atmospheres, so that of course changes things) and the large pieces would heat up. The terminal velocity (see sources) they would reach would depend on the gravitational force of the planet, but unless it was an extremely low gravity planet, the heat and velocity when released by impact with the planet’s surface would result in a massive release of energy, which could manifest as an explosion, a shock wave, or any of a number of things. Let’s say that the planet had a significant amount of methane or similarly flammable gas in it’s atmosphere. In this case, the entire atmosphere could hypothetically ignite, causing the planet to burn fiercely for quite some time, either until the gas burned off or the atmosphere dissipated enough for the fire to burn out, in which case the planet’s life forms would likely start to evolve either to adapt to the new atmosphere or to return the planet to it’s old configuration.
However, if the ship was shot down, then likely it would be in numerous pieces already, meaning that a hail of molten death would slam into the ground, causing a large AREA of damage, but comparatively minimal AMOUNTS of damage.
That’s my nerd-a-riffic guess.
Justin
devastate yes but not in a bye-bye planet sort of way. the ship will leave a big skid mark and pieces sprawled out over everywhere but the planet will still be in one piece
The impact would make a big mess, but it wouldn’t be **that** bad. A Star Destroyer wouldn’t have nearly as much mass as a solid nickel-iron meteor, because the Star Destroyer has all that hollow space inside where people live, breathe, and move.
It would also depend on how it hit. If the Star Destroyer came in a at relatively shallow angle, it would make a sliding impact and a huge debris field, like the Enterprise’s saucer in Star Trek: Generations. If it came in on more of a straight-in ballistic trajectory, that’s where it would make one HELL of a crater, on the order of the Meteor Crater in Arizona.
But either way, it wouldn’t be a planet-killer. The exact damage, of course, would depend on where it landed (e.g. large city vs. uninhabited plain), but it wouldn’t be a global catastrophe like you’d see from the meteors in Armageddon and Deep Impact. Hope that helps!
oh geez!! There would be ciaos of epic proportions!!!
In addition to the damage it would cause in releasing kinetic energy, what might happen with its drive system? If Star Destroyers use a captured singularity as a power source, release of that on a planetary surface during impact might be bad. Same thing with a Trek-style matter/antimatter drive. I think that even the collapse of a fusion bottle could wreak significant havoc.
most likley or it would leave a huge a** crater
Well, it depends on the gravitational pull, how big the craft was and if it was just in orbit or actually going at lightspeed or something.