Death of the Dilgar

[PhoenixAndy]

You're thinking of a Supernova event which is a not exactly the same thing as a Nova event. In the former the star blows it self apart after collapsing inwards, in the later the star "merely" sloughs off matter into its surroundings; The normal cause is when a a star ecretes matter from a nearby companion star and gets to the point whereby the gravitational forces don't balance the outward solar wind pressure. Slightly less violent, but still nasty.

Let's test our understanding...

"Nova" - the usual death of a big sun, instead of the cycle of normal (sol-sized) stars which can be expected to grow into a red giant, then a cepheide-type, then collapse into a white dwarf; a bigger sun (twice to three times Sol) collapses hard enough to blow up, blasting it's outer mantle into space (which thus vaporize all inner planets and all but possibly the densest cores of outer palanets at least), leaving behind a neutron star or small black hole. Can also be caused by several other things, from real life (your companion stars would fit in here, though this event still causes the upper atmosphere of the dwarf to explode - not merely a series of flares, but a big bright blast) and sf imagination (antimatter induction to stellar core, stargates dropped intot he sun, that sort of thing)

"Supernova" - same thing with realyl big stars (well over 3 times sol mass - exact margins are only estimations at this time), this time the explosion is so violent that it will create a nebular over the next few million years and possibly seed new stars. Theorized to always leave behind a black hole, and possibly even capable of sending out enough matter to destabilize nearby stars...

At least that is how my last girlfriend (almost finished her study of astro-physics) explained it to me.

That's more or less right. What we don't have though, is a definitive answer on how much material gets ejected by a Nova. Taking our own solar system as an example, but assuming Sol was large enough to go Nova naturally, we'd probably see Mercury vapourised, Venus would lose all it's atmosphere, and probably have the outer few layers of the surface boil off. Earth would be similar. Mars would be a bit more unaffected. Then it gets interesting. Jupiter could go either way, losing some of it's atmosphere, or gaining enough high-energy matter to ignite, and become a star in it's own right. The other gas giants wouldn't get the option, most likely losing some mass, but being largely unaffected. Pluto probably wouldn't even notice. This theory also assumes that the planetary distances would also increase in relation to the size of the sun, so as to produce roughly the same conditions we have now.

Of course... maybe the names are used differently in english and german - that could be possible (like "billion" - in english a billion means 1.000 millions, in german that number would be a "milliarde" while a "billion" would be 1.000.000 millions...).

Well, technically, in English, a "billion" is 1 000 000 million. In American English, a "billion" is 1 000 million. I'm not quite sure why they felt the need to reduce the size of a billion, but over recent years it's become standard to use the American definition, rather than the original one.

 

[frobisher]

At least that is how my last girlfriend (almost finished her study of astro-physics) explained it to me.

I think we're also on to a Level Level Level discussion here Well, nearly.

Nova means "new" and Nova stars were seen to be the "new" stars that brightened at semi or actually regular intervals.... Originally...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova
http://www.answers.com/topic/nova
http://dictionary.laborlawtalk.com/nova

But as you can see confusion reigns But in a consistent manner.

Of course... maybe the names are used differently in english and german - that could be possible (like "billion" - in english a billion means 1.000 millions, in german that number would be a "milliarde" while a "billion" would be 1.000.000 millions...).

It's actually the same in English as well; The current use of Billion is an Americanism that has crept into to general usage in the last few decades.

I don't think the Shadows would think that way. After all, "weak races die, strong races get even stronger" - so, if the Dilgar had managed not to die, they would have to be assumed to have grown in strength.

Like the Alacan..? I think they come out as one of evolution's losers.

One more point: Did loosing the Minbari war make the humans a "failed race" in the eyes of the Shadows? (and the humns lost that war, no matter what happened at the battle of the line) No it didn't - because they survived.

But the difference is Humanity survived as a race, the Dilgar will at best be barely viable as a race (down to the last few thousand). Whilst Humanity in theory faced genocide, it wasn't enacted on them. The Omelos nova wiped the Dilgar out as a race.