# How does a planet explode? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000 "2011-06-19T02:34:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/21 "2011-06-19T16:03:44Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > the same way cars explode. They go over a bump or hit a pothole? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/22 "2011-06-19T16:42:06Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > \*\*How does a planet explode? \*\* > > Planets are held together by surface tension, much like a droplet of water. That whole gravity thing is just a theory. Once the surface tension is broken everything goes ‘splat’ or '‘blewie’ and comes apart. > > Hey, I checked, and this is not in General Questions. Hmm . . . Then a mere strip-mine of sufficient acreage . . . Heh-heh-heh . . . Ha-hah-hah . . . **MMMMmmmmbwwwaaahhaahaHAHAHAAA!!!** Thank you ever so much, **Dallas.** I have my Evil Plan now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/23 "2011-06-19T17:13:41Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > the same way cars explode. So we should be very worried if Jack Bauer starts shooting at the ground, then ? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/24 "2011-06-19T17:36:58Z")
I’ve always hoped for a Superman story in which he discovers that Darkseid was responsible for Krypton’s destruction–or alternately, that the Guardians of the Universe were. The former’ motives should be obvious; while Darkseid would see the potential for the Kryptonians as slave, he might ultimately decide that billions of humanoids, each of whom, as an adult, is mightier than his most powerful servants, was too much of a risk. The latter requires a bit more elliptical thinking. It’s always bothered me that Kryptonians had such enormous power but ONLY when removed from their natural environment. There’s a Justice League story in which it’s asserted that the Guardians acted to restrict the potential power of the Martians (of a similar power class), so I can imagine them doing something to Krypton to prevent its inhabitants from reaching their natural potential; and I can also imagine that process, thousands of years later, causing the planet’s destruction. There’s ample precedent for the Oans being manipulative, arrogant, and incompetent, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/25 "2011-06-19T17:38:39Z")
Everybody knows the Earth’s center is filled with dynamnite and it’s connected to a lever that pokes out of the ground so that if the lever is thrown, then KABLOOIE! And that lever is guarded by Nate the snake. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/26 "2011-06-19T17:44:57Z")
I had assumed that they went “ka-BOOM,” but an exhaustive (well I’m exhausted, anyway; maybe I should exercise more and start eating right) Google image search for variations of “Superman Krypton explosion” reveals that my theory was incorrect. Apparently in the DC Universe, at least, planets explode silently. Who’d have thought _comic books_ would top the list of scientifically accurate media? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/27 "2011-06-19T17:53:29Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Everybody knows the Earth’s center is filled with dynamnite and it’s connected to a lever that pokes out of the ground so that if the lever is thrown, then KABLOOIE! And that lever is guarded by Nate the snake. Don’t you dare. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/28 "2011-06-19T18:17:10Z")
[One of the more extensive sites dealing with this problem as applied to the Earth](http://qntm.org/destroy). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/29 "2011-06-19T19:36:16Z")
I’m getting worried that someone’s going to read this thread, realize that planets don’t shatter into little chunks… and retcon Kryptonite out of existence. Then we’ll have a douchy Superdude on our hands with no weakness. So, Mr. Byrne (in case you’re reading)\*, do NOT get rid of Kryptonite. We need it, and we can still have it if Jor-El’s a bad handyman. Hey, the guy’s a scientist/politician, not an engineer. So when he tosses his kid in his protoype rocket and lights the fuse, I think the reader’ll understand if the rocket fizzles a little… then tumbles out the window with sparks shooting out of the back like a factory-second firecracker. After bouncing through Lara’s broccoli patch, it rights itself and the engine finally kicks in and “whoosh”/ “whew”, off it streaks. With a couple of clods of dirt… Kryptonian dirt, mind you… stuck to the hull. \*or Waid or Bridwell or Shooter or David or Straczynski… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/30 "2011-06-20T00:00:31Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > [One of the more extensive sites dealing with this problem as applied to the Earth](http://qntm.org/destroy). And is anyone here really surprised that there are some? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/31 "2011-06-20T00:18:40Z")
Personally, I favor the explanation that Krypton wasn’t actually a planet, but a cooled white dwarf. It’s been accreting matter from its red-giant companion, and Jor-El saw that it was approaching the Chandrasekhar limit. When it did, supernova. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/32 "2011-06-20T03:36:06Z")
You folks have it all wrong - you have to have an “Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator” if you want an earth shattering ka-boom. anything else simply won’t cut it. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/33 "2011-06-20T05:28:04Z")
> [@simster](#): > > You folks have it all wrong - you have to have an “Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator” if you want an earth shattering ka-boom. > > anything else simply won’t cut it. I’m relly surprise that it took 32 posts for this. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/34 "2011-06-20T05:41:51Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Delta Quadrant is a very long distance away, and the commander has a habit of stopping at every tourist trap along her route, so no. In her defense, every time she stops she buys a postcard and sends it in to the Federation Navy’s High Command. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/35 "2011-06-20T15:57:37Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’ve always hoped for a Superman story in which he discovers that Darkseid was responsible for Krypton’s destruction–or alternately, that the Guardians of the Universe were. It was actually Despair of the Endless who was responsible. She convinced Rao (Krypton’s sun) of the artistic value of destroying an entire planet so that there would be one survivor. … Although, you would have thought she could have gotten his little dog, too. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/36 "2011-06-20T16:38:13Z")
Shortly after the original _Star Wars_ came out, they discussed how much energy would be required to blow up a planet in _American Journal of Physics_. as The Bad Astronomer and others pointed out, it’s a heckuva lot of energy. Better to just smash an asteroid into it, or something. > [@](#): > > I’ve always hoped for a Superman story in which he discovers that Darkseid was responsible for Krypton’s destruction–or alternately, that the Guardians of the Universe were. It was Black Zero, in \*\*Superman \*\* #205, in 1968. The story was written by the legendary Otto Binder, who should have known better. Maybe he was under the deadline, so he whipped out this continuity-destroying story. Neal Adams did the cover. Agent Black Zero discovers that Jor-el’s theotry about Krypton’s instability is incorrect, but he likes the idea, so he pushes along the dying down instability and helps Krypton explode. Black Zero is bald, has a forkled tongue, and purple ryes (like Liz). He later showed up again in DC stories, but everyone agreed to forget about the Krypton thing: [http://thenostalgialeague.com/cr/forgotten-superman.html](http://thenostalgialeague.com/cr/forgotten-superman.html) > **[Black Zero](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Zero)** > > Black Zero is a name shared by two supervillains, two terrorist organizations, one special forces group, and a computer virus that have all appeared in various comic book series published by DC Comics. > The original Black Zero solely appears in Superman #205 (1968), in a story entitled "The Man Who Destroyed Krypton" written by Otto Binder with artwork by Al Plastino. He is a space saboteur who destroys planets and was hired to destroy Krypton by maintaining pressure in its core. > In the present,... ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/37 "2011-06-20T16:52:10Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > There’s a Justice League story in which it’s asserted that the Guardians acted to restrict the potential power of the Martians (of a similar power class), so I can imagine them doing something to Krypton to prevent its inhabitants from reaching their natural potential Such as causing the very rocks of the planet themselves to release radiation that inhibits their powers. For instance. > [@](#): > > and I can also imagine that process, thousands of years later, causing the planet’s destruction. There’s ample precedent for the Oans being manipulative, arrogant, and incompetent, after all. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/38 "2011-06-20T17:47:40Z")
> [@Foggy](#): > > I’m relly surprise that it took 32 posts for this. 😉 I’ll see that and raise you, “Not with bang, but a whimper.” ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/39 "2011-06-20T18:04:07Z")
> [@simster](#): > > You folks have it all wrong - you have to have an “Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator” if you want an earth shattering ka-boom. > > anything else simply won’t cut it. As it happens, “space modulator” is as good a term as any for one of my handwaves for planet-ka-booming weapons (or random spatial phenomena): gravity inversion. It nullifies the largest single force holding the planet together while simultaneously inducing a force that tries to rip it apart. Of course, to the best of our knowledge, such a weapon/phenomenon is complete fantasy (as the Bad Astronomer might point out), but it provides sufficient deniable plausibility to satisfy me. For bright, flashy ka-booms, instead of gravity inversion, you might postulate a (still more fantastic) antimatter converter weapon that changes substantial chunks of the planetary material into antimatter. Or swaps the planet’s core with its antimatter double in a symmetrical universe (bonus: ka-boom two planets for the price of one). ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000/40 "2011-06-20T18:07:37Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Such as causing the very rocks of the planet themselves to release radiation that inhibits their powers. For instance. Sorta what I had in mind, except that it doesn’t explain the red-sun thing. Unless you’re suggesting a connection be made between that and kryptonite. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-planet-explode/586000.md?page=3)