Calcs for Essene in stars corona.

[The Reaper]

The Essene in the novel Xenos in the Eisenhorn series has the Essene hiding in a star's corona for over 66+ hours. How durable does that make the shields?

[Sriad]

It doesn't really say much; it's a rounding error compared to the heat and radiation from the star unless they were hiding IN a solar flare.

The particles in a star's corona typically have temperatures well in excess of a million degrees K, but a density of less than 1 kilogram per cubic kilometer.

[The Reaper]

Ah thank you very much.

[Sarevok]

Please don't use megatons as hitpoints.

For all we know this ship is fragile as tissue paper. It just has magic thermal insulation that prevents heat from entering.

[Connor MacLeod]

You can figure it out for yourself. The radiation intensity of a stellar coronoa (although unless they specify what kind of star it was you have to guess and modify it by luminosity) for the Sun is given in various places on the net and even on this website I believe. We know the dimensions (roughly) of the Essene, so you can estimate surface area. Multiply intensity by the Essene's surface area (likely accounting for several sides at once, I doubt it got hit on just one side.

That gives you the amount of energy (in a second - eg power in watts) that the Essene had to withstand. If you want to obtain the total energy withstood (by whatever means) you multiple yhte timeframe (in seconds) by the power figure you derived.

That said, as others noted I wouldn't put too much stock in the "66 days" bit, because it makes assumptions about the mechanism that allowed the Essene to stay in there that long. If the Essene had some good radiators, for example, they could probably get rid of the energy as quickly as they absorbed it, and stay in there indefinitely. The 66 days would then be impressive mainly as an indicator of how good they can engineer defenses.

If you're really lazy or inept at math you can use Mike's stellar radiation calculator and cheat, but I believe that if you're going to be tossing aorund numbers you should practice doing them yourself. I wouldn't have learned a damn thing unless I experimented (and made mistakes).

It doesn't really say much; it's a rounding error compared to the heat and radiation from the star unless they were hiding IN a solar flare.

The particles in a star's corona typically have temperatures well in excess of a million degrees K, but a density of less than 1 kilogram per cubic kilometer.

The temp of whatever matter is in the corona is likely trivial compared to the stellar radiation it would be outputting at that distance. As energy figures go its not going to be trivial (esp not over a large surface area, and possibly over a period of time.) it may just not be as impressive as some other potential calcs. It's still pretty neat in its own way though, especially considering it's not a warship we're talking about, but a civilian freighter.

For all we know this ship is fragile as tissue paper. It just has magic thermal insulation that prevents heat from entering.

It's more likely that the void shields (which have variable mechanisms, but largely absorb and displace energy into the warp, as well as displace/deflect energy away from the ship) protected it from the corona. Although if the ship is "running silent" it might be forced to shut down the voids, in which case it would be bare hull, and possibly structural reinforcing powerfields.

[Sarevok]

Interesting. If void shields block radiation can they be used to create a cloak large enough for a warship ? Is capital ship cloaking technology available to the Imperium ?

[Lord_Of_Change 9]

Is capital ship cloaking technology available to the Imperium ?

As I recall it isn't, although the Dark Eldar have something similar.

[Connor MacLeod]

Interesting. If void shields block radiation can they be used to create a cloak large enough for a warship ? Is capital ship cloaking technology available to the Imperium ?

To at least some segments of it. The Inquisition for example (and some AdMech) Have demonstrated it. I don't remember if its widely available. But they often run silent.

Small problem with it as a cloaking field though is that I believe shields are detectable in and of themselves. They bleed off some sort of energy at least periodically nevermind having more stable emissions (it is for all intents and purposes a form of warp portal, they all give off some sort of emission.) However, since it is unlikely (but still being argued) that one can stealth/hide oneself in space from detection, the fact they can hide (by running silent) does in fact argue for some sort of cloak-like mechanism (at least to temporarily mask or redirect emissions.)

Anyhow, possible detection is why I suggested they may have to have shut down the void shields and either had to do it on are hull or powerfields. Whether there is some sort of radiator involved or not, I dont know, but powerfield reinforcement of the hull is the only known mechanism aside from a thick hull. Unless it's constantly ablating

It MIGHT have some special insulation to protect the crew inside from heat (I kinda doubt that though, given what I have known or read about ship design) but even if it does the bare hull (plus whatever aforementioned augmentations have it) still has to hold up to it. The only "what if" affecting it is whether or not the ship can bleed off/radiate energy into the enviroment without being detected, if the hull is withstanding it totally, or if thery have some energy absoprtion/heat sink system sucking up all that excess energy.

[Black Admiral]

Legion has the void shields on the Alpha Legion warship Beta configured to be opaque to sensors and visible light, and Age of Darkness mentions that Raven Guard warships are fitted with "reflex shields" capable of making them all-but-invisible, at least at lower performance levels.

[Connor MacLeod]

I suppose if the shields are run at very low settings they could probably be much harder to detect. I don't think you need super-strong shields to absorb or redirect emissions or sensors.