Questions tagged [hard-science]
REVIEW THE WIKI BEFORE USING THIS TAG! For questions that require unequivocal proof that answers are correct through the use of equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, etc. Compare to: science-fiction, science-based and internal-consistency. This tag may not be used alone. This tag may not be used with the science-fiction, science-based, or internal-consistency tags. Flag your question for moderator attention once posted.
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Can a planet survive a supernova?
The Sun has nowhere near enough mass to enter the branch of stellar evolution that would lead to a supernova, fortunately for us. However, there are planets that orbit stars that are destined to go ...
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Is it possible having a tidal locked satellite to be near enough to "touch it"? [duplicate]
Assume 2 planetoids (one of which could be Earth), similar to Earth (says similar radius, and a gravity force ranging from half to twice the gravity of Earth). Is it plausible they are tidally locked ...
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Changing Earth's rotation rate
Variations of this question have been asked and answered previously but I am looking for something specific.
Situation:
Earth's body (mantel and crust) rotate at different rates than it's core (I ...
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Can I trigger an "ancient device" to start the process of terraforming Mars?
Let's say that an advanced civilisation once existed on Mars millions of years ago at a time when water existed in liquid form and that life was abundant on the planet. (Say this civilisation is a ...
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Aliens want our water [closed]
Aliens, for some unknown reason, want all the water (H2O) in our oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, (all large bodies of water on earth), and plan to steal it from us overnight.
Luckily for us, they don't ...
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What single element could destroy the world?
What single chemical element (get out your periodic tables) could most efficiently destroy all life on the planet.
Restrictions:
Natural elements only, and no anti-matter...nice try.
Looking for the ...
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Trying to make a gun making scene realistic
So here is the situation.
I have a character who is a trained modern gunsmith and he finds himself thrown into a setting where the most advanced firearm is the flintlock. I know some of the most ...
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A planet ringed by stars
Suppose there was a ternary system where the stars are effectively identical in mass, luminosity, radius, etc. These three stars circle a central point rather than two orbiting a larger third. At this ...
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On feasibility of rotating space colonies
Would a spoked, rotating torus work as a method of colonizing space? If so, how feasible would it be? As in, what would be the cost, where would we get the materials for it, how fast does it have to ...
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Could we improve space travel using beamed energy?
It is some small number of years into the future. We are regularly using beamed energy, as defined in this answer: large arrays of microwave transmitters. We have developed this so that these arrays ...
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Antimatter Storage
Is it possible to contain similarly charged particles in a magnetic field or traps, in generally large scale (say, all of them have positive charge), and could be utilized as power reserves quite ...
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Low-tech inertial dampener options
As mentioned in this discussion: How to keep humans pilots instead of AI in sci-fi future? the ability to handle G forces is a limiting factor on what pilots can do. Some of my solutions to address ...
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How far away could Earth detect a projectile travelling at relativistic speeds?
Suppose our alien neighbors woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided humans would be less annoying if their home planet was hit with a giant artillery shell travelling at half the speed of ...
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Habitability of an icy volcano planet
Suppose we have a rocky planet (somewhere between Earth- and Super-Earth- sized) orbiting a star far enough away that it would be around Pluto's temperature if sunlight was the only heat source. If we ...
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How to create a nuclear explosion localized to only a few square feet?
Is there a way to create a nuclear explosion that only destroys things within a few feet of the bomb?
The point is to completely eradicate something relatively small, leaving no trace. Let's assume ...
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Shinespark-like effect with a jet engine
I am working on a 2D platformer game, and I'm trying to introduce a jetpack which would give a shinespark-like ability from Metroid series, i.e. it needs a run-up to a certain speed, at which the ...
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Would it be possible to locate the Milky Way from a distant galaxy?
Given Earth's current level of technology, space- and ground- based astronomical tools, etc., to what extent would it be possible to locate the Milky Way from a somewhat distant galaxy, say, in ...
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What power generation method is the best to sustain a hovering city?
The Technology
We're in the year 2250 on an Earth-like planet. All the space on the earth's surface has been used up by the population of 15 billion, so we're moving into the air. Cities, along with ...
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How big a black hole is needed for this story?
The story begins in classic disaster film style. A small rogue black hole is approaching our Solar System. It isn’t going to get close enough to destroy everything, but it will agitate our Sun, ...
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What more than sentience do you need from a species for its intelligence to be recognizable by humans?
It's becoming obvious from how could humans recognize another species as sentient / intelligent that recognizing another species' intelligence is very complicated. There are no universal tests, no ...
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Close Quarters Combat... In Space
A simple enough question, but one that Grimmsdottir and I agonized over.
Basically, what would enable close-ranged fighting between space fleets/ships? We both agreed that having gargantuan ships ...
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How does the Ash Manor get electricity?
Previously on the same setting (:
How close is too close for a human habitation to be near an erupting volcano?
What factors could delay the rescue of a small group of survivors on a Pacific volcanic ...
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Design a non-computerized biometric door
Nowdays we have biometric doors that can scan your eye, palm, fingerprint, ear, etc, etc...
But all of them rely on electronic readers and computers to match the sample against the stored pattern.
...
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Racing Around the Edge of a Black Hole
I am trying to understand the physics of an interstellar race.
Say two ships are racing past a black hole as if it were a corner on a race track. One of the ships takes a hard line and comes very ...
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What kind of environment would lead to dominantly yellow foliage?
I'm looking for various factors; Atmosphere Composition, Type of Sun, etc, whatever would work. That is, of course, if this is even likely/possible. I believe that yellow is generally not an ideal ...
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How large can a volcano be?
A key part of the plot in a story I'm working on revolves around the main region being on top of volcano that is set to erupt. The trouble is that the region in question in my setting is roughly the ...
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Cosmic Background Radiation in the past
I have a story where a species of the very first (literally first) carbon-based humanoid life (surprise!) that happen to emerge roughly seven billion years ago (their home system were formed twelve ...
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Asteroid flux or: How to make a planet perfect for mining
One of the cool things about the Moon is that the far side has a thicker crust that the near side.1 One theory explaining this is that the Moon was hit by an object, possibly a moonlet created by the ...
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Could a Tank Survive a Nuclear Blast?
In the red corner, a top of the line Main Battle Tank, you can have your pick, but let's say a tricked out M-1A2 'Abrams' with a full Nuclear-Bio-Chem Protection kit.
In the blue corner, a Nuclear ...
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How can a Type II civilization influence accretion rates from a debris disk to a passing star?
This is supposed to be a test of the hard-science tag. All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Speculative or ...
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Making a planet habitable for humanoids: The planet
The question:
What characteristics are necessary for a planet to be habitable for humans? What should the generic star and planet be like?
The life forms are human, so they
Need to have access to ...
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Making a planet habitable for humanoids: The star
The question:
What characteristics are necessary for a planet to be habitable for humans? What should the generic star and planet be like?
The life forms are human, so they
Need to have access to ...
- 99.8k
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How to get across the galaxy moving slower than light - in a single lifetime?
All the recent talk on Worldbuilding about the vast energies available to higher-level Kardashev civilizations, the need for 50,000 year message-systems, and so on, got me thinking. With enough energy,...
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How could humans recognize another species as sentient / intelligent?
There is this fantasy in fiction that humans meet another species and figure out that it's intelligent. This usually happens with dragons, dolphins, aliens, collectively intelligent plancton...
But ...
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