Rhydonium

[Khas 12,158]

Okay, so we see several things here. The first, is that Rhydonium is an explosive, or as Wookieepedia says, a very volatile fuel. That Venator was loaded with the stuff, judging by the multiple explosions. Another thing to note is that we see flames of different colors I don't just mean like red, orange, yellow, white, and blue. I mean we see green and purple as well. Green and purple. Colors that don't come up in incandescence. However, green and purple do come up in chemicals burning. Given the fact that they said that the large amount of rhydonium makes it a bomb, we can assume from this that rhydonium is a chemical explosive, which puts a severe limit on the yield it could produce. I mean, wouldn't antimatter, hypermatter, or even fission or fusion explosives work better if they had them?

Anyway, we later see debris flying at about 2 km/s. I'll be generous and say that each chunk ways about a million tons. Using KE=1/2mv², we come to half a megaton per impact.

Half a megaton.

Also, we finally see that the screens on ships and stations are in fact, glass windows. Why? Well, I've worked with metals before, and I can tell you, I have never once seen metal break in the way that window did. Metal would have bent, before ripping.

And finally, that explosion itself wasn't too hot. The metal was still black after the explosion. Given that metals don't require a lot of energy to heat up, and that it takes a long time to lose energy in space, because loosing heat by radiation is pretty inefficient, the explosion couldn't have been that hot either.

As for the brilliant white light, ever burn magnesium? You'll get something pretty damn similar.

[Tyralak 12,068]

My thought is that the Rhydonium was used to initiate a chain reaction with the ship's reactor system. It wouldn't take a gigantic explosion to destabilize the reactor core if placed in the right spot.

[359 11]

My thought is that the Rhydonium was used to initiate a chain reaction with the ship's reactor system. It wouldn't take a gigantic explosion to destabilize the reactor core if placed in the right spot.

But we have seen Venators explode before (ex: TCW: "Bound for Rescue"), and it was nothing like that. So that large explosion was a direct result of the Rhydonium, probably some secondary effect. Plus it was that same unique color, which does not result from reactor explosions.

 

I mean, wouldn't antimatter, hypermatter, or even fission or fusion explosives work better if they had them?

Maybe the republic would have detected the bomb much sooner if it was made from such energetic and exotic materials.

 

 

At 0:33 in the clip one of the republic frigates is taken out by a rather small piece.

[Khas 12,158]

As for the million metric tons, that's being pretty fucking generous. Considering that the ROTS novelization says that starship hulls are largely made of hydrofoamed permacrete (Pg. 74 and 86), the debris was probably much lighter. Factor in the fact that if it was made of durasteel, it would still be pretty light, as durasteel was described as being "ultra-lightweight."

[Vince 520]

As for the million metric tons, that's being pretty fucking generous. Considering that the ROTS novelization says that starship hulls are largely made of hydrofoamed permacrete (Pg. 74 and 86), the debris was probably much lighter. Factor in the fact that if it was made of durasteel, it would still be pretty light, as durasteel was described as being "ultra-lightweight."

 

Quote required. They look like metal to me. Everything else says their metal or durasteel. Are you sure that this "hydrofoamed permacrete" isnt some very light but very strong ["perma] for of concrete which is used for construction purposes on planets....

[Vince 520]

Don't look like a conventional explosion. With the white flash and sort of implosion. I like the way those armoured hulls withstood the pieces of shrapnel though that was cool!

[Vince 520]

A Venator is around 480 million tons.

[Khas 12,158]

Quotes:

 

"[He] slammed into the wall so hard the hydrofoamed permacrete buckled and collapsed onto him."

- RoTS, page 74

 

"permacrete, hydrofoamed to reduce weight."

- RoTS, page 86

[OS@M@ 102]

I will fight durasteel!

[Khas 12,158]

Quote required. They look like metal to me. Everything else says their metal or durasteel. Are you sure that this "hydrofoamed permacrete" isnt some very light but very strong ["perma] for of concrete which is used for construction purposes on planets....

 

Could be a mixture.

[OS@M@ 102]

I will fight explosions!

[Khas 12,158]

Good. You can start by running headfirst into one.

[Vince 520]

I have this book somewhere. Thats the fight in the bridge right?

[Khas 12,158]

I think so.

[OS@M@ 102]

I will fight books!

[OS@M@ 102]

Good. You can start by running headfirst into one.

 

 

Fight?

[Vince 520]

The fuel out masses the ship by order(s) of magnitude. Lets say a 100 fold. The VSTAR is actually more like 400 million, not 500. That makes the ship 4 million tons and the fuel the rest ~. Volume ~15,838,619. Density in this example, 1/4 metric ton per cubic meter.

Some of those debris were cubic meters. I'm not very good with speeds. At one hundred meters per second each represents 1.25 MJ bouncing harmlessly of the hull. At 1km/s each would represent 125 megajoules to the same effect. Not that impressive. Though the windows took some knocks.

 

Is it not possible there were permacrete structures in the bridge, explaining why ships are said to have durasteel hulls or titanium everywhere else? Like pillars or something.

[Khas 12,158]

Maybe.

 

Still, didn't a lot of the Invisible Hand's lower decks crumple when it hit the runway?

[Vince 520]

I don't remember that

[Khas 12,158]

About the Rhydonium explosion.

 

Well, turns out I was a little confused at bits. The flames were clearly incandescent. However, very little else was heated to incandescence in the blast, as all the debris we see stays black.

 

Also, there was a Republic frigate that was completely destroyed by a piece of flying debris.

[scvn2812 504]

A few things I found interesting about the video:

 

There are two distinct "phases" of the Venator cooking off. The funky colored explosions rippling across the hull, presumably from the Rydonium since no Star Wars ship I've ever seen explodes purple. Then a titanic, bright white explosion vaguely like the ImpStar that exploded at Endor. The center of which seemed to be roughly around the reactor.

 

The debris was rather large for that type of explosion. Probably the Rydonium explosions wrecked hull integrity and made it easier to break her apart in larger chunks.

 

The outsized menace of flying debris versus energy weapons fire is consistent with Empire Strikes Back where an ImpStar got its command module caved in by an asteroid or my view on Revenge of the Sith that the deck guns on Invisible Hand that were ejecting shells were projectile weapons, either dedicated antiship guns or flak cannons repurposed out of desperation.

 

It seems like The Systems Commonwealth vs the Galactica Empire would be a pretty good match up as Star Wars ships seem pretty vulnerable to kinetic damage if you can get past their shields.

 

A small transport diving through a sun unpowered speaks of pretty insane heat tolerance but this is one more piece of evidence against extreme physical tolerance. The main structural members would have to be very strong to take the acceleration forces but the hull itself obviously doesn't have that degree of resilience.

[Khas 12,158]

There was no blinding flash of light when that one ISD blew up at Endor.

 

As for the ship passing through the star, that's contradicted in ANH, when Han says that without precise calculations through hyperspace, they could fly too close to a star, or bounce right into a supernova, and that would end their trip real quick. Or maybe that ship just had super-de-duperium in its hull.

[scvn2812 504]

There was no blinding flash of light when that one ISD blew up at Endor.

 

As for the ship passing through the star, that's contradicted in ANH, when Han says that without precise calculations through hyperspace, they could fly too close to a star, or bounce right into a supernova, and that would end their trip real quick. Or maybe that ship just had super-de-duperium in its hull.

 

Bright flash of light then.

 

Its not really contradicted. Firstly the Falcon isn't a military vessel and thus isn't equipped with military grade defenses, good shielding, reasonably resilient hull yes but perhaps not fly through a star with no power good. He also said these things in the context of being in hyperspace, which the movies don't really give us much to work with on how it works other than flying through physical objects or too near a massive, energetic object like a star = bad. Furthermore, iirc the crew of that craft wasn't thrilled about the prospect of crashing through a star, they just didn't have much choice. That was probably just a hair within the limits of that ship's tolerance and a less robust ship, even by degrees, wouldn't survive a similar trip. They also didn't quite go straight in, they cut across off center. Had they passed through the core, they likely, almost definitely wouldn't have survived, if not the pressure and heat, then the density of the core would likely wreck their day.

 

For comparison, stealing some numbers from the thread about the video here the Ha'taks sitting in a blue giant incident was estimated at 37.6 kilotons / second at the low end for a much more massive and luminous star and a much larger ship with much greater surface area. If that were a high end, then for a small craft that would be a bit high but their engines with less than perfect efficiency would generate similar levels of waste heat assuming it can keep pace with fighters and star destroyers.

 

At the end of the day, that quote no more disallows other ships from flying near a star in real space than him claiming it would be impossible to destroy a planet does until he realizes his instruments aren't faulty, that is the remains of Alderaan, there's an enormous space station that can do it and a character who has had time to study the station's blueprints says its just about as powerful as greater than half the starfleet. The most you can take away from that quote in light of evidence from The Clone Wars is that it would be a bad idea for the Millennium Falcon to do these things and that may or may not be while in hyperspace. If its the latter than we don't know how hyperdrive works or interacts with normal matter other than to say it would be bad for the Falcon to do these things. Another ship? Who knows.

[Khas 12,158]

What type of star was it?

 

This is important. If it was a red giant or supergiant, then the insides would be like a hot vacuum.

[scvn2812 504]

I think it was yellow but I'll have to check it out when I get home tonight. Hooray capped data.

 

Since he hasn't commented, I'd kick this clip over to Brian. He's floated the idea of Systems Commonwealth vs Empire a couple times and this has a lot to say about Star Wars and kinetics against unshielded hulls.