Even More Power

The last video I posted from the What If? series looked at the feasibility of light reaching from the earth to the moon. It ended up with a disaster, actually blowing the moon out of its orbit. After the video was posted, the question stayed with Randall Munroe and Henry Reich. Munroe couldn't stop thinking about even more power, and what that would do. After all, there are more powerful beams than mere visible light. He's talking about gamma rays, the kind of things that pull stars apart. Not that we have gamma ray weapons here on earth, besides the flashes produced by nuclear explosions, but this is a thought experiment. If we could harness such power, it would be in line with the planet-killing beams from the Death Star or Starkiller Base. Once we've fashioned this hypothetical death ray, we could cause all kinds of destruction. Yay! (via Damn Interesting)