Fastest Possible Interstellar Ship Construction and Launch

[Hlynkacg]

It certainly wouldn't consume the solar system (it wouldn't even consume planet if it hit it directly, given that a 10 solar mass black hole is only 30 km across, though it would reduce it to rubble), but it need not consume the solar system to destroy it. If it passed within a few AU of the Sun it would very probably scatter the entire system.

Agreed but as stated before (based on several hours of messing around in gravsim) the chances of a stellar mass scattering the entire solar system is rather low.

If the Sun and at least a few of the planets are still here after the black hole passes why wouldn't you harvest them for energy and resources before risking an interstellar journey?

The primary hazard a solitary black hole would present to Earth is that of scattering the solar system, thus rendering Earth uninhabitable by lack of sunlight. Otherwise the minimum safe distance is extremely close on astronomical scales, and you'd be almost certain to already be outside it or be able to get outside it at a fairly leisurely velocity on ten years warning unless the hole was so extremely massive as to be detectable far more than ten years out.

Understood but remember that the 10 years allotted in the OP included the time required to design build and launch the vessel therefore the time-of-flight would in fact be much much less than ten years.

Likewise if the earth is only knocked off it's orbit and not consumed than my orginal question remains. "Why go interstellar when you can dig in?" It'd be just like colonizing any other planet in the solar system only without all the effort required to get there.

 

[APDAF]

That is why I propose a more realistic event like a huge supervolcanic eruption or a world ending asteroid.

 

[T.Neo]

I haven't looked that closely to the gravity sim scenarios discussed here, so I may be missing something, but even if several of the planets (like the gas giants, and Earth) were thrown into moderately eccentric orbits, I have a hard time seeing it leading to massive Earth-tearing volcanism and suchlike. Their gravitational effects on one another would likely still be very minute, less than that which the Moon exerts on Earth.

So it doesn't look like it'll eject Earth, and doesn't look like it'll pulverise it. Earth still seems fairly okay. What about bolides being disrupted by the passage and crossing Earth's orbit? What kind of impact flux could we expect? Nothing? Slightly elevated? Pure terror?

I know even that won't pulverise Earth, but I'd just like to know how hard I would need to make my bunker.

 

[Hlynkacg]

That is why I propose a more realistic event like a huge supervolcanic eruption or a world ending asteroid.

Even an Earth blasted by asteroids or torn by volcanism would by reasonably hospitible in comparison to other celestial bodies.

See me earlier comment about "Why go interstellar when you can dig in?" It'd be just like colonizing any other planet in the solar system only without all the effort required to get there.

 

[Admiral_Ritt]

Actually the only asteroids that likely would threaten extinction are:
very rare, albeit less rare than a marauding black hole.

With most large NEO mapped, and deep sky surveys underway, there
isn't alot of room for surprise. It would have to be something from deep
in the Ort could, or even an interstellar wonderer. at that distance and
on an intercept course for the inner solar system, there would not be much
proper motion to aid in detection.



How big an impact would one need to kill all vegetation and blue-green
algae, on this planet. Something larger than Chicxulub. A 30KM beast?

 

[Urwumpe]

Actually the only asteroids that likely would threaten extinction are:
very rare, albeit less rare than a marauding black hole.

Since we do know the existence of asteroids and asteroid impacts on Earth, while we have still not found a single marauding black hole in the universe. Which is not really surprising, since the density of black holes is even in the center of a galaxy pretty low. Which heavier black hole should catapult a black hole away?

How big an impact would one need to kill all vegetation and blue-green
algae, on this planet. Something larger than Chicxulub. A 30KM beast?

Its mass and speed that matters. A 70 km comet can cause much more damage than a 250 km NEO.

Still wouldn't be enough as you can see by our existence. something along the size of Mars would be needed to be on the conservative side. Such an impact did have the intended result.

 

[T.Neo]

Most surfaces of solid bodies in the solar system are defined by the evidence of bolide impacts. We've seen bolide impacts occuring. But there's no evidence whatsoever that a black hole incursion has ever occured in our system, and there is reason to believe that black holes are (relatively) rare objects. Thus, it is likely that black hole incursions in systems within double, or triple, or quadruple digits from a star are rare.

A 'marauding black hole' may be less detectable than a bolide, perhaps. But the liklihood of a black hole passing within even 1000 AU of the Sun is tiny, while there are thousands of known objects that, while they do not pose any immediate risk, cross the orbit of Earth.

There are a lot of objects out there that could potentially pose such a risk that we have not yet detected. I believe there was an incident a couple months back where we detected a 1km wide asteroid on a close approach with Earth, only a few months before the approach. We detect comets coming into the outer system with only months warning- some of these objects could also be on a collision course with Earth.

A one kilometer wide asteroid is no planet-ending event, but it could still do a lot of damage. I am far more worried about a bolide impact than I am about a black hole incursion. Not that I lose sleep over bolide impacts, but that's another matter.

 

[Urwumpe]

If a black hole would anywhere in the universe pass through a solar system, we would detect a strong radiation outbreak - did not yet happen in such a way.

 

[Admiral_Ritt]

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/55954main_rxj1242_comp_250.jpg

It has happened in another galaxy, Probably in our own, there just weren't
any humans around to see it.

I've been assuming that you can't detect a black hole at ranges of
over 150 AU. Maybe I am wrong. This travelling black hole would have
smashed through most of the Oort cloud a couple of decades ago. If it was
travelling very fast (an assumtion on my part) then it would beat any
ice objects it launched towards the solar system because of gravitational
effects. There is always A chance It will run into something.

Now I suppose there could be tell tale signs, but is an ice ball (the estimate
is that a trillion Ice balls 1km exist there) big enough object
that would create a radiation spike as it was swalloed. Would there be
an appeciable accretion disk?. There would have to be a glancing encounter

I don't think you would get a warning "flare", the ice balls are too small.

 

[Linguofreak]

Agreed but as stated before (based on several hours of messing around in gravsim) the chances of a stellar mass scattering the entire solar system is rather low.

Granted, but as the OP's entire premise is a disaster necessitating the evacuation of the solar system, we're more looking at whether scattering the entire solar system is *possible* rather than if it's *probable*.

(Plus, I have a hunch that a good fraction of the scenarios that scatter Earth significantly will also scatter the Sun significantly, and if that happens, the whole solar system will come apart whether or not any other planets are scattered significantly).

Likewise if the earth is only knocked off it's orbit and not consumed than my orginal question remains. "Why go interstellar when you can dig in?" It'd be just like colonizing any other planet in the solar system only without all the effort required to get there.

A valid question. Part of the answer would be that Earth's atmosphere would actually be a liability to habitability once temperatures started getting really cold: vacuum is a much better thermal insulator than air. (Of course, eventually the atmosphere would freeze out and then you would have a vacuum, but that would mean anybody remaining on Earth would have to deal with being buried under the "snow" as that happened). That said, the moon has no atmosphere, isn't far, and would probably remain with Earth through the scattering.

 

[DouglasMitchel]

Interstellar Ship Construction

Would it be possible to stretch spacetime just using a group of "phased standing waves"?