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That Thrice Damned Asteroid
Perhaps no other event in Star Wars has caused as much controversy as this scene from Empire Strikes Back:
Preface:
On March 7, 2002, Brian Young was kind enough to review this page and offer his thoughts. To see his comments please click here.
Another site which I recommend is by Greg Burnett. He has done some excellent research into the possible composition of the asteroids themselves.
Size:
One of the greatest points of contention is the diameter of this asteroid. What do you base its scale on? If the velocity of Turbolasers was a known (estimates range from 5 to over 100Kps), then its distance from the Star Destroyer based on the time it took for the Turbolaser bolt to reach the asteroid (0.25 sec) could be derived and an accurate scale established. So other methods must be employed.
One novel approach, proposed by Isil'Zha of SB.com, uses the width of a bolt to use as a benchmark:
| Here's what I'm doing, making
a scaling of that asteroid to something that we know is at the same depth. In otherwords:
The LTL that hit it, by comparing the asteroid to the width of the LTL. Now we just need
to find the width of the LTL. the Falcon at about 27m across, the bolt then, must be around 2m in diameter (probably less since we see it traveling across the foreground)" - (I created this thread at SB, so I'm using ideas that supported my thread, this was from IXJac) |
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| Now, in this picture,
the bolt would be the same width as the one above (top of
page) since they're both LTL bolts (anyone who argues against
that is about as logical as saying: the width of a .50 caliber bullet from one gun is
different than the width of a .50 caliber bullet from another gun of the same type.) So this makes the asteroid about 10 meters in
diameter.. at the most, since the bolt is probably less than 2 meters in width. (watch the
width of the bolt compared to it on impact NOT THE FLASH IT CREATES AS THE BOLT RELEASES
IT'S ENERGY [unless you want to make that asteroid even smaller]) (<----Original
thought; here's the actual scaling: The TL diameter is 12 pixels, the Falcon's is 375.
Making 13.888 pixels 1 meter. Making the diameter of the TL bolt only 0.864 meters, making
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However, using the same logic that a bolt is a bolt, comparing the length of a bolt results in a much different number:
Avenger (left) pursues the Millenium Falcon while ISD
(right) clears asteroids
Using the estimated length of the Falcon, 34m, the lengths of the bolts forming the "x" directly in front of it are 252m and 184m. Using the lower bolt length and assuming that 3/4 of the bolt has been absorbed by the asteroid yields an approximate diameter of 42m.
The greatest problem with the two above methods is the assumption that all turbolaser bolts are the same. There is evidence to suggest that this is not true. Notice that the turbolaser bolt that struck the Millenium Falcon appears much shorter than those fired at roughly the same time forming the "x" in the above picture. Perhaps this is an indication that turbolasers may have different power settings.
A third diameter results from measuring the turbolaser bolt that strikes the asteroid based on its width at point of initiation compared to the width of the Star Destroyer trench and extrapolating from there:
| Width of Trench at turret:
35.00m Measured width of trench at turret: 0.83cm Ratio of trench at turret: 1cm=42.17m Measured width of Turbolaser at point of initiation: 0.11cm Width of Turbolaser based on ratio at turret: 4.64m Measured width of Turbolaser at point of impact: 0.39cm Ratio of Turbolaser at point of impact: 1cm=11.90m Measured diameter of Asteroid: 2.20cm Diameter of Asteroid based on ratio: 26.17m |
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Firepower:
The following numbers were derived using information and equations from Stardestroyer.net. Feel free to download the spreadsheet and plug in your own asteroid diameter. (3/07/02: corrected the volume equation and allowed for ellipsoidal asteroids.)
| Diameter (m): | 26.17 | |||||
| or | ||||||
| Axis (m): | ||||||
| X | 0.00 | |||||
| Y | 0.00 | |||||
| Z | 0.00 | |||||
| Volume (m3) | 9,384.47 | |||||
| Iron | Silicon |
Average |
||||
| Density (kg/m3): | 7,870.00 | 2,330.00 | 5,100.00 | |||
| Specific heat (J/kg K) | 600.00 | 650.00 | 625.00 | |||
| Melting temp (K) | 1,808.00 | 1,683.00 | 1,745.50 | |||
| Latent heat of fusion (J/kg): | 2.89E+05 | 1.65E+06 | 9.70E+05 | |||
| Latent heat of evaporation (J/kg): | 6.34E+06 | 1.06E+07 | 8.46E+06 | |||
| Asteroid mass (kg): | 7.39E+07 | 2.19E+07 | 4.79E+07 | |||
| Asteroid melt energy (J): | 9.26E+13 | 5.72E+13 | 7.49E+13 | |||
| Asteroid vaporization energy (J): | 4.68E+14 | 2.31E+14 | 3.50E+14 | |||
| Asteroid total energy (J): | 5.61E+14 | 2.88E+14 | 4.25E+14 | |||
| Implied bolt energy (MT): | 0.13 | 0.07 | 0.10 | |||
| Time of energy input (sec): | 0.08 |
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| Implied bolt power (TW): | 6.73E+03 | 3.46E+03 | 5.10E+03 | |||
| Estimated HTL power (TW):* | 8.41E+05 | 4.33E+05 | 6.37E+05 |
* assumes power proportional to size (1:125)
Asteroid Remains?:
There is also derision over whether or not the asteroid was vaporized. Some point to what appears to be glowing remains and state that if it had been vaporized we would not see this. Perhaps these are not remains at all. As the Millenium Falcon is being pursued out of the asteroid field, the ISD Avenger fires turbolaser bolts that seemingly detonate of their own accord; flak bursts*. These flak bursts dissapate in a fashion that strongly resembles the way the asteroid blast does. This tactic had been used before by an ISD against the Falcon in Star Wars immediately following the escape from Mos Eisley. In that scene, it should be noted that while the ISD scored no direct hits the shields of the Falcon were being drained.
Compare the dissipation of the asteroid blast compared to the flak burst.
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It took .04 seconds longer for the TL flak burst to dissipate than the TL striking the asteroid. This could suggest that the asteroid was vaporized by the second frame shown and what is witnessed from then on is merely the residual effects of the turbolaser bolt itself.
* Flak bursts may
be caused by the bolt intersecting a shield and not an innate property of
the bolt itself.
*
Asteroid Impacts:
In this same scene we also witness the impact of two asteroids against the ventral side of the ISD.
| Asteroids just prior to impact
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| Asteroids being destroyed
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| Dissapation complete
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There is no apparent damage to the ISD. More interesting, the destruction of the asteroids here is similiar visually and in time (< 0.375sec) to the asteroids hit by the bolts. Perhaps this is an indication of how ISD shields operate.
Photo Source:
CAV laserdisc freeze frame vidcap originally 42.33x31.75cm at 96 pixels/inch (Available upon request)
