History Main / ExplosionsInSpace

** The Casaba-Howitzer experiments were attempts to make spaceborne nukes viable. By attaching a thin tungsten plate to a warhead, one gets [[WaveMotionGun a beam of atomic fire]]; by attaching a thick styrofoam pillar to it instead gets [[ShortRangeShotgun a wide "pancake" of nuclear debris.]] Or so it was thought because the experiments were canned after a treaty barring atomic weapons in space was ratified.

In reality, space has no air to transfer the explosive energy to. Thus, explosions would have an initial brilliant flash, and the resulting ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IJ74IvpBlU spherical]]'' fireball and debris would travel away from the point of explosion far too fast for the eye to see.

* ''{{Planetes}}'', being on the hard end of the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness, averts this. When [[spoiler: a space center on the Moon where a giant spacecraft engine is constructed]] blows up, an immense cone of ejected matter is shown, in a realistic and [[OhCrap terrifying]] way.

* In ''SilentRunning'', nuclear explosions in space are just circular flashes that fade away.

* Done mostly correctly at the tail end of ''Film/TheAvengers''. The nuke that [[spoiler:Iron Man steers into the enemy mothership]] detonates as an expanding sphere, with no PlanarShockwave or other Hollywood contrivance. Not quite right, but closer than Hollywood usually gets.

* In [[MatthewReilly Matthew Reilly's]] ''Area 7'', when a space shuttle gets hit by a missile, it simply cracks.

* In ''[[TheShipWho The City Who Fought]]'', a starship whose drive systems are going critical explodes near the protagonists' space station, and the resulting debris field makes venturing outside extremely hazardous for quite a while.

* In ''TheLostFleet'', ships explode in a brief bright flash only in two cases: reactor containment fails, or two ships collide at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light (ships normally maneuver at 10% of c). In both cases, little is left of the ship after the flash. Most ships that are destroyed in battle simply break apart and continue on their original trajectory, as pieces start to move apart.

* In ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'', explosions usually die out quickly and fiery explosions (which are caused by oxygen in the ships that blow up themselves - the reason why Cylon raiders hardly ever blow up but just disintegrate mostly) appear 'smeared' by velocity. Also, nuclear explosions do appear mostly as 'just flashes' as described above, without the trope-ish fireball and/or mushroom clouds. While capital-ship shots were generally silent, smaller fighter craft generally had full sound in space.

* ''TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' series generally tends to describe explosions in space correctly. Usually, the danger is not the explosion itself, but the debris flying from the exploding ship or station in every direction at high speeds.

* In ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', damaged ships (such as a derelict freighter blown up by an Alliance cruiser in "Bushwhacked") simply break up, with the broken parts drifting in the trajectory of the ship.
* In ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'', explosions usually die out quickly and fiery explosions (which are caused by oxygen in the ships that blow up themselves - the reason why Cylon raiders hardly ever blow up but just disintegrate mostly) appear 'smeared' by velocity. Also, nuclear explosions do appear mostly as 'just flashes' as described above, without the trope-ish fireball and/or mushroom clouds.

* ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' was also another big user of the spherical explosions, in or out of space.

** In ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', Praxis' explosion produces a planar shockwave that knocks everyone on the bridge of the Excelsior out of their chairs, beds, etc. As with the above example, shockwaves do not propagate through the vacuum of space. This is [[HandWave handwaved]] by Commander Valtaine referring to it as a "sub-space shockwave," though it isn't made entirely clear.

** In ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'', the plot revolves around a missile of sorts that can stop all nuclear fusion within a star. The idea is that without the star's gravity to change its course, the energy ribbon would be redirected to the surface of the planet the villain is on. This, of course, would not produce a shockwave (since, at the risk of being repetitive, [[LawOfThree shockwaves don't propagate through the vacuum of space]]), and hence not destroy any of the planets immediately, though the people living in the Veridian system would presumably freeze to death without the heat of their sun, eventually. But because [[RuleOfDrama dramatic tension must be maintainted]], a shockwave is seen destroying Veridian III.

* Mostly averted in ''Fanfic/{{Bait and Switch|STO}}'' and ''Fanfic/RedFireRedPlanet'', a pair of ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' fics with CharacterOverlap. Ships that suffer a warp core or fusion bottle breach tend to be described as going up in a "retina-searing white flash" or something similar.

* Done correctly at the tail end of ''Film/TheAvengers''. [[spoiler:The [[DeusExNukina nuke]] Iron Man steers into the enemy mothership detonates as an expanding sphere, with no PlanarShockwave or other Hollywood contrivance.]]

* In the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series, ships that have their fusion bottle fail just have a "single, eye-searing flash," and then are gone.
** It's also mentioned that nuclear warheads are only useful as weapons in space if they get a direct hit (Which is highly unlikely), which is why missile weapons had moved on to using bomb-pumped lasers by the start of the series.

* Like every SciFi show, ''Series/{{Stargate|SG1}}'' has this. However, when they use nukes, the explosions are at least spherical and without a mushroom cloud.
* In ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', damaged ships simply break up, the broken parts drifting in the trajectory of the ship.

[[folder:NewspaperComics]]
* A ''TheFarSide'' strip {{Lampshaded}} this trope: A scientist jumps up in a crowded theater, yelling "Stop the movie! Stop the movie! Explosions don't go 'boom' in a vacuum!"

* Though the visual isn't discussed, explosions in ''{{GURPS}}'' lose about half of their power when in space due to lack of atmosphere.

* In ''EveOnline'', the explosion effects look pretty much correct according to what is described above. They are slowed down, however, so that the players can savor in the shiny afterglow of the ship they just helped blow up.

* ''Track'' (a 1980's action-adventure series). In "Revenge of the Master" a neo-Nazi bomb maker plans to explode a bomb on board the space shuttle, and gives some thought to how the vacuum will affect the explosion.

* In ''{{Apollo 13}}'', the explosion apparently quite accurately depicted the real life event.

* ''AMiracleOfScience'' is careful to make sure to accurately portray the behaviour of explosions in space ''and'' waste gases from factory smokestacks on the Moon (ItMakesSenseInContext, amazingly) that can be seen in the background of one page. Suffice it to say that the comic's creators ''really'' like to ShowTheirWork.
* ''{{Starslip}}'' [[http://starslip.com/2010/02/18/onomatopyewpyew lampshades this trope]] in a storyline about the [[SpaceNavy Astry's]] combat exercises. One of [[TheCaptain the captains]] complains that the battle doesn't feel like the real thing -- because the damage is all simulated, and [[RealityIsUnrealistic there are no explosions in space]] when a ship is hit.

* ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' has shown space explosions twice so far. The first one was accompanied by the UnSoundEffect [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20060812.html "SILENT KABOOM!"]] The second one quickly morphed into a [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20101207.html fireworks display,]] with the onlookers' screams changing to "Oooh! Ahhh!"

* ''AMiracleOfScience'' is careful to make sure that the behaviour of explosions ''and'' waste gases from factory smokestacks on the Moon (ItMakesSenseInContext, amazingly) that can be seen in the background of one page. Suffice it to say that the comic's creators ''really'' like to ShowTheirWork.

* ''AMiracleOfScience'' is careful to make sure that the behaviour of explosions and smoke from stacks on the moon obeys real life physics. Though it does have smoke stacks on the moon...

** When ships are destroyed, their parts continue to travel in the same direction for a few seconds before they blow up. This is even true of [[DolphisDolphisEverywhere Liir]] ships which, technically, don't move in the Newtonian sense but teleport millions of times per second. Thus, when Liir ships are destroyed, their wrecks should stay relatively at rest.

* Like every SciFi show, ''[[StargateVerse Stargate]]'' has this. However, when they use nukes, the explosions are at least spherical and without a mushroom cloud.
* In ''{{Firefly}}'', damaged ships simply break up, the broken parts drifting in the trajectory of the ship.

* ''Babylon 5'' generally managed this quite well.