About: Explosions in Space   Sponge Permalink

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A subtrope of Space Does Not Work That Way. Hollywood is not interested in teaching or even researching physics, and generally doesn't even depict normal explosions on Earth accurately, so it's no surprise that explosions in space rely on Rule of Cool rather than science. In the movies, explosions in space work pretty much the same way explosions on Earth would (or rather the way film-makers imagine they would, with lots of red flames and smoke). Nuclear explosions would be similar, but with a much brighter flash, and little or no visible debris since it would be vaporized.

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  • Explosions in Space
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  • A subtrope of Space Does Not Work That Way. Hollywood is not interested in teaching or even researching physics, and generally doesn't even depict normal explosions on Earth accurately, so it's no surprise that explosions in space rely on Rule of Cool rather than science. In the movies, explosions in space work pretty much the same way explosions on Earth would (or rather the way film-makers imagine they would, with lots of red flames and smoke). Nuclear explosions would be similar, but with a much brighter flash, and little or no visible debris since it would be vaporized.
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abstract
  • A subtrope of Space Does Not Work That Way. Hollywood is not interested in teaching or even researching physics, and generally doesn't even depict normal explosions on Earth accurately, so it's no surprise that explosions in space rely on Rule of Cool rather than science. In the movies, explosions in space work pretty much the same way explosions on Earth would (or rather the way film-makers imagine they would, with lots of red flames and smoke). In reality, space has no air to transfer the explosive energy to. Thus, explosions would have an initial brilliant flash, and the resulting spherical fireball and debris would travel away from the point of explosion far too fast for the eye to see. The fireball would become transparent a few microseconds after the explosion due to cooling by radiation. Nuclear explosions would be similar, but with a much brighter flash, and little or no visible debris since it would be vaporized. Explosions in vacuum on the surface of a planet, moon, asteroid etc. will look similar to those in zero-g, but any debris that does not achieve escape velocity in the local gravity field will arc back down and rain to the surface. In low gravity, this could take minutes or even hours. Further, if a spacecraft blows up, the explosion should have the same velocity as the craft did (possibly altered by the velocity of whatever hit it). I.e., the boom should keep moving. Many movies and shows have a fast-moving craft turn into a stationary explosion (relative to the camera). Above all, explosions in vacuum would be silent. In many cases, this is caused by the method of special effects: actual pyrotechnics in an atmosphere. It should be noted that this is generally considered an Acceptable Break From Reality by the majority of the audience. Many Hollywood Explosions in Space will also include a Planar Shockwave. This is such an ubiquitous trope that only aversions and subversions should be listed.
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