Stellar EMP

[Fritz_Brown]

This is for all the rockheads out there (this means YOU, Mal!

). I need a stellar event for an adventure idea that will:
</font>

• kill electronics (like on a starship)</font>
• be a major threat to life</font>
• NOT wipe a planet of air/water/etc.</font>
• be periodic (say every 100-500 years)</font>
• be somewhat abrupt</font>
• not make Mal's head explode with too much force
  
  </font>

I was thinking along the lines of something in an extremely elliptic orbit (probably not the right word), that only causes the event when in a certain proximity to the main star.

The intent is to provide a time limit for the adventure, a threat to the players, and an "explanation" for some wierdness in the flora/fauna on the planet.

Whaddya think? Can it be done?

 

[Andrew Boulton]

"I was thinking along the lines of something in an extremely elliptic orbit (probably not the right word), that only causes the event when in a certain proximity to the main star."

Maybe a binary system, with a small companion in an eliptical orbit?

 

[Ran Targas]

This is a cool topic for lay speculation (wish I was smart enough to be an astrophysicist!):

What about a neutron star companion to the system's primary.

Option 1 - It was captured sometime after the system formed and life developed on the planet in question. Although its orbit doesn't carry it into the inner system, the affects of its strong magnetic field are still felt, particularly as the neutron star gets closer to the primary. Then, as the primary's solar wind impacts on the neutron's mag field, the charged particles are focused into jets that bath the inner system in radiation.

Already, the neutron star has swept the outer orbits clear of any planets (i.e. no big gas giants in the outer system).

After it's passing, the number of comets approaching the inner system increases dramatically as Oort/Kuiper material trailing the neutron star is captured by the primary's gravity.

Option 2 - It is a parasitic companion, drawing matter off the primary and going novae with some regularity.

This would require the planet in question to be in the outer system just to survive the novae; unless by some fluke the primary somehow always shields the planet from the blast (ancient device/stellar engineering?). If the planet is actually a moon of a very large brown dwarf, perhaps the dwarf's magnetic field is able to effectively protect it from most of the blast (not sure just how tramatic this phenomenon actually is).

Unfortunately, either option makes the planet pretty inhospitable to humans and the like. High radiation, possible huge fluctuations in temperature/weather due to the energy striking the atmosphere, all kinds of nastiness. Does allow for a unique environment though. Maybe your flora and fauna use the ambient radiation as a source of energy.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Well, the idea is to have an "electrical" life form that survives, and all the fauna's seeds go into a cyst mode when this happens.

Ran, I was thinking a neutron star/pulsar companion initially. I'm concerned about the threshold not being abrupt enough, though. The characters know an approximate time limit before getting in-system. Once in-system (and not before), the characters should be able to pin down a specific time for getting out of Dodge.

 

[Ran Targas]

Fritz,

With option 1, you could have the planet poised (minutes/hours/days) to pass directly through one of the plasma jets or a jet is about to sweep the planet (like a big weed eater). Under option 2, the neutron is about to go nova within a few hours, with only travel time of a few hours before the shockwave reaches the outer system.

In either case, the players should be able to figure out just how much time they have to wrap up business and jump out. If not ...

 

[Malenfant]

Originally posted by Fritz88:
This is for all the rockheads out there (this means YOU, Mal!

). I need a stellar event for an adventure idea that will:
</font>

• kill electronics (like on a starship)</font>
• be a major threat to life</font>
• NOT wipe a planet of air/water/etc.</font>
• be periodic (say every 100-500 years)</font>
• be somewhat abrupt</font>
• not make Mal's head explode with too much force
  
  </font>

Hm, this screams "bloody huge solar flare" to me or a "flare storm". But NOT a Kappa-Ceti-like megaflare. What sort of star are we looking at here?

That'd definitely knock out electronics, cause difficulties on the planet (but not roast everything. Though satellites would be in trouble either as their electronics were overloaded or as the upper atmosphere of the planet expanded due to the flares and created more drag on their orbits). Wouldn't be a major threat to life though, unless said life were in a spaceship in the system.

If you wanted it periodic, you could say that the sunspot cycles are such that every few hundred years or so, there's a period of intense activity.

It'd be abrupt, but there'd be a few hours warning (depending on where the planet was) if there was any kind of solar monitoring going on.

That any use?

(you don't need to invoke wacky companions that would preclude the existence of habitable planets. This could be a process that is going on just within a normal star)

 

[Ran Targas]

Alright, who summoned Mal? I know I didn't say his name three times?

Solar flares are so passe, last year's fashion. I wouldn't be caught dead in one! This year, it's all about neutron! It's the new black, you know!

!?! Wacky !?! You calling me whacky !?!

 

[Malenfant]

I go for function over style

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

A Jupiter-like planet, or a brown dwarf, could produce enough e-m radiation to fry unshielded electronics in its vicinity.

How about...

Bellus, a type T1-V brown dwarf is in an outer orbit of a type B5-V star. The orbit of its only habitable planet -- "Jean" -- and the orbit of Bellus are such that the two world get close enough to each other for the radiation belts around Bellus to induce massive aurorae in Jean's ionosphere about once every hundred standard years. These aurorae are so intense that the light produced is equal to two or three full moons. The aurorae last for a few weeks, long enough to fry most electronics and power distribution systems on Jean's surface.

The surface TL is 6 (or less), due to the inhabitants being blasted back into the steam age (or earlier) every century. There are some TL8+ installations, but these are deep underground.

The subterranean "Morlocks" are the tech-mages of the world, exploiting the surface-dwelling "Eloi" for their cheap labor.

The Crew of the "Prydonian Few" is making an unscheduled stopover just before the most intense aurorae render their ship inoperable.

What to do?

-Deal with the Morlocks for high-tech ship repairs.
-Start up a revolt among the Eloi (if one has not already started).
-Overthrow the Morlocks and take their place.
-Join the Morlocks and live like sultans.

 

[Ran Targas]

^ I like it! And knowing my players, they'd side with the Morlocks and learn to like Eloi tar-tar!

 

[Malenfant]

Gee Keklas, can you fit any more 50s scifi cliches into one scenario?

Realistically it's just plain wrong. B5 V stars can't have habitable planets, for a start. And if the planet is getting so close to the BD to be affected by its radiation belts, it's probably going to end up either torn apart by tides or flung out of the system.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Well, Mal, I actually want it to take out unprotected life on the surface - or at least make death preferable to continued existence. This needs to be a predictable event, but the characters will not have enough data until in-system to predict it outside of a few day window.

I should have said in the requirements that it would last quite a while, too. No jumping out, then right back in. (So, more than two weeks. )

And, having a system that almost precludes life is not a problem. The world should only have flora, lower order fauna (that goes dormant during the event), and one creature big enough to hurt PCs and their stuff. (And, it would be much more interested in their stuff, what with it emitting emag fields and all....)

Would the world be less protected if it lacked (or had reduced) Van Allen belts?

Heretic, explain to me more of the physics in your scenario. It sounds very interesting. Edit Looks like Mal answered that one.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

Gee Keklas, can you fit any more 50s scifi cliches into one scenario?

First answer: Yes! I live for 50's Sci-Fi!
Second answer: There are no new stories to tell.

Realistically it's just plain wrong. B5 V stars can't have habitable planets, for a start. And if the planet is getting so close to the BD to be affected by its radiation belts, it's probably going to end up either torn apart by tides or flung out of the system.

What do you expect for 3 minutes of typing with no forethought? This is, after all, a "throwaway" scenario. The "hard science" ones I keep for myself!

 

[Ran Targas]

So, the concensus is that to produce the desired effect, you need a solar flare or other stellar magnetic phenomenon, unless a gas giant can produce a flux tube in the absence of solar wind, right?

The good thing about any of these scenarios is the effect can be very abrupt, but can be foreseen with some accuracy and thus avoided.

In the end, the simplicity of Mal's solar flare may be the easiest to explain and replicate for your players (imagine a tsunami of million degree plasma).

 

[Fritz_Brown]

OK. I will go with that. What would trigger a VERY regular (but far apart) flare storm? Could something in a highly eccentric orbit do it?
Edit BTW, this event needs to kill electronics on the planet, too. If you don't resolve the adventure by the event - you are royally screwed, no matter where you are.End edit

 

[Malenfant]

Could just be an intrinic fluctuation in the star's magnetic field. Most big flare events are quite regular (especially when you're talking about M V stars, many of which are actually called Flare Stars).

I don't think it's impossible that some cycle means that sunspot activity on a star increases every few hundred years, culminating in a big solar flare blowout that lasts a few weeks while the magnetic field unknots itself. Anyone in space or on a vacuum world is gong to be in trouble in such an event. If the world has a magnetic field then it could still be affected (solar flares have knocked out power grids on Earth, IIRC this happened once in the 70s or 80s in Quebec?).

If you want it to be dangerous to life on the surface though, you might want to consider going for a Megaflare (see that Kappa Ceti link I posted earlier). That could actually blast a good chunk of upper atmosphere and the ozone layer away.

 

[parmasson]

How far out would the event effect people and equipment? Bases on Mercury could be reduced to slag and Luna might be in for a rough ride but would the fuel refinery orbiting Jupiter be protected by that planet's powerful magnetic field or distance or both?

 

[Malenfant]

I don't think flares would roast the surfaces of the planets. It's more about a gigantic stream of high energy particles hitting the planet, not a blazing inferno of heat.

That said, if you're on a vacuum world then you'll get frazzled by the radiation (EMP, radiation damage, sputtering etc). Think of the radiation environment on the surface of Io or Europa, where you get tens of thousands of rads per second of exposure. If you're underground (even just by a few metres) or behind some really solid cover you'd be protected though.

Ironically I think it'd be worse if you have an atmosphere, because the gases in that are going to (a) be literally blasted away more easily or (b) be broken up by the high energy particles (as is the case with Ozone) or (c) the atmosphere will expand through heating as the particles slam into the upper atmosphere (a gas would react differently from rock. Crystalline structures may get altered and damage a bit by the radiation bombardment, but it wouldn't "melt"). Or some/all of the above - which would have nasty side effects on the surface environment.

Distance is definitely a factor though. As is direction too - I think the megaflares are like normal flares in that you're only in trouble if you're in the direct path of the outburst. But I could be wrong about that - sometimes I get the impression with Flare stars that the whole darn star goes up in luminosity (that could just be because our view from Earth happens to be in the direction the flare is travelling though). You'd probably be OK at Jupiter (and chances are you'd be able to withstand the already high radiation environment there too - though that would get even worse if Jupiter got hit by the flare).

 

[parmasson]

Since we are talking about radiation . . .

Is there a way to deal with radiation exposure in game terms? I would love to give the players one more thing to think about when that power plant goes bad. I know it is rather technical but how do you quantify it for your players. That is to say, when is it tumor time?

 

[Anthony]

Well, 100 rem is unlikely to be immediately fatal, 400 rem is fatal half the time, and 600 rem is almost always fatal. For less than a thousand rem, period before death is more than a week, so PCs have a chance to survive if they can jump out quickly and reach high tech medicine.

http://www.answers.com/topic/radiation-poisoning seems to be a fairly useful description.