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I asked previously about removing the atmosphere of a planet, and one of the responses was through an artificial Coronal Mass Ejection.

On my drive home today, I thought it might be more effective for the DoomFleet to be able to create a low-grade supernova-like effect (By definition, a "standard" nova can only happen on a white dwarf in a binary system), thus hitting almost all of the planets in the system with one event.

I'm not particularly worried about the mechanics of creating such a nova. The DoomFleet has antimatter weaponry and can travel faster than light, so they can manipulate absurd amounts of energy as it is.

What I'm wondering is the effect of the supernova on the planets aside from stripping the atmosphere, and just how strong it would have to be to perform such a removal. Also a curiosity is how protected moons that happen to be behind larger planets, particularly gas giants.

For a sense of absolute power, the DoomFleet doesn't particularly want to expend more energy or time than it has to. So, for example, if it's in our Solar Sysytem, it would be enough to remove the atmosphere of Earth and a terraformed Mars. Maybe not entirely, but enough to make them unlivable.

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  • $\begingroup$ How strong would it have to be to what? You seem to ask what it would do, and how strong would it need to be to do whatever that is? $\endgroup$ – JDługosz Mar 25 '17 at 7:39
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    $\begingroup$ I think he's asking the effect of such nova capable of stripping planet of its atmosphere. See the fourth paragraph. $\endgroup$ – Vylix Mar 25 '17 at 8:16
  • $\begingroup$ That is precisely what I am looking for $\endgroup$ – Andon Mar 25 '17 at 10:58
  • $\begingroup$ Edited for clarification. $\endgroup$ – Andon Mar 25 '17 at 21:59
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Source

It's like getting an EMP bomb detonated in your face. Well, that's exaggerating, but pretty much the effect is like that. Electricity will be the first to take a hit.

The ground currents induced by large geomagnetic storms can melt the copper windings of transformers that lie at the heart of power distribution systems.

This leads to power outages. And power outages will lead to failure of almost any service imaginable, including food and medication - because of the failure of refrigeration system.

Interestingly enough, there is a massive solar storm nearly hit earth in July of 2012. If it did hit, all of those above will happen.

Step up a bit, and you can see earth burnt like an apple. If the EM radiation is powerful enough to remove earth atmosphere, I guess we will die of being burned alive before we suffocate. I don't know if that's a good news or not.

The effects on other planets are mostly the same. Jupiter will be fine because it has 20,000 times stronger magnetic field than earth, and mostly other outer planets will be fine because of the distance.

Earth moon, however, will suffer the same fate as Mercury in the short span of the nova, but less extreme if the moon is happen to be behind earth when it happen, because of earth magnetic field shielding.

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