Re: [FT] sensors

 
I thought that it is the generally accepted theory that nothing,
including light in all is forms, could escape the grasp of the black
hole if it was past the event horizion (though I haven't kept up on most
of the new theories).  It would seem that any matter being "eaten" by
the black hole, would not have any detectable radiation, except that on
the "normal" side of the event horizion.
 
Anyway, sensors, such as rader, tend not to detect the object itself,
but rather detect the influence of the object on its surroundings, hence
radar creates an "artificial" environment by the progagation of radar
waves, then measures any returns from any object they encounter.  
the operator can generally tell what kind of object the sensor found by
comparing the new data with data of established objects.  A black hole
is an anomely that is detected by the lack of data beyond a certain
point.
 
Using wave propagation theory, there is point to when the relected
energy does not produce a signficant return or a return above ambient
levels.  I have assumed that in FT and FT/FB, that all the ships use
some form of radar, hence the lack of detailed information beyond a
certain point.	It would make things very interesting when you have a 40
mass destroyer and a 40 mass light cruiser.  Using sensor blind rules
for FT (ie blobs for ships not in the active detection range) would make
the game even more insteresting.

Samuel Penn <sam@bifrost.demon.co.uk> wrote:

laserlight@quixnet.net said:
> Reading through other parts of Nyrath's site, I saw discussions of how
a
> drive plume can be detected from here to Antares, but I didn't notice
> anything about how far away you can detect a ship which is using an
> Handwavium drive, which (as everyone knows) has no rocket exhaust.
> Let's say you move by generating a small black hole in front of you
and a
> negative mass equivalent (generates a push rather than a pull) behind
you.
> a) how would this be detected?

There would be hawking radiation from the black hole for a
start. Depending on your definition of small, the black hole
may evaporate long before it can be used to go very far.

Both would probably generate gravity waves. The black hole
would bend the light of anything it occulted. Any mass
falling into the blackhole (e.g. dust) will heat up and
generate X rays.

What's holding the negative mass together btw? It's definitely
not gravity. It's probably going to be quite big so you're going
to need a lot of energy to hold it together, which itself
could be detected. If you can't compress it to be really small,
then it's a big object which is probably highly visible to
both visible light and radar.

-- 
Be seeing you, --------------------------
Sam. http://www.glendale.org.uk

		
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