Deflector dishes

[Graham Kennedy]

In the atmosphere I wouldn't think it would do all that much, just because the BoP was quite small. It's essentially leaving the atmosphere instantaneously; worst case is it pushes a column of air ahead ahead of it all the way out into space, leaving a kind of tube of vacuum behind it which would collapse with a huge bang. Something like a thunderclap, only ten or a hundred times worse. Maybe leave some hot air in its wake from friction too, so something like a very bad lightning strike with very bad thunder.

On the star it did create some nasty effects; they did it to cause a massive solar eruption, which cooked a couple of ships that were chasing them. Nice little tactic.


Incidentally I knocked my thoughts on warp in the solar system up into a little article.

[McAvoy]

I don't know. The wake it leaves would be similar to what a plane going supersonic would leave except far more powerful. I mean a jet going supersonic can even rock a 100,000 ton aircraft carrier a bit (cool shit though). Imagine something a hundred times bigger and going a million times faster and going a billion times faster in acceleration would do.

The boom alone would cause all humans nearby to just go pop. Buildings would explode, that aircraft carrier might capsize.

That is assuming there is no magic thing that prevents that.

[Graham Kennedy]

The problem is that energy can only flow into the atmosphere so fast. Beyond a certain speed, the speed makes no real difference any more.

[McAvoy]

Ahh good to know.

I am just having a hard time seeing a 100 meter ship going to light speed won't do some serious damage in the atmosphere. Seems to me it would be like a nuke going off.

[Mikey]

The problem is that energy can only flow into the atmosphere so fast. Beyond a certain speed, the speed makes no real difference any more.

I'm not even talking about the energy added/work done, I'm just talking about the displacement. The speed with which the atmo behind the vessel would collapse into the space just vacated wouldn't just cause thunder, it would create eddies which could easily become cyclonic systems.