Super Spender

Chapter 803: Chapter 798: The Shelved Interstellar Travel Plan_1

According to theoretical calculations, the energy produced by the annihilation of 1 gram of antimatter with 1 gram of matter is approximately 1.8 times 10 to the 14th power Joules of energy. In other words, 1 gram of antimatter can release an amount of energy roughly equivalent to that of 100,000 tons of TNT, which is even more intense than a nuclear reaction.

Of course, this refers to ordinary antimatter. There are many elements on Earth that have not been discovered yet, such as the kind of antimatter used by this engine, which is even more terrifying. Although this element is extremely rare, the power it unleashes is immensely formidable.

“Which of these two energy sources is better?” Finn Lewis didn’t exchange immediately but simply asked straightforwardly.@@novelbin@@

“Antimatter thrusters are more stable and have advantages in energy output and other aspects. Of course, if the warship explodes, a bad reaction could easily create a micro black hole. Even though this micro black hole would only last roughly between 10 to 20 seconds, it can still completely obliterate the entire warship,” Luna Starfield explained.

“While standard Federation engines use artificial energy, which is not as stable as antimatter thrusters, and also require a larger volume of fuel, their endurance is not as good as antimatter thrusters. However, any spaceship is equipped with the same energy production factory. Endurance is no issue for Your Highness, as long as you are not planning to jump to another Heritage System. It is enough to support prolonged combat.”

“However, Your Highness, speaking of inter-Heritage System journeying, with our latest jump engine, we do have the capability to perform inter-Heritage System jumps. And if you exchange for a higher-grade engine, that would be even more powerful,” Luna Starfield briefly introduced to Finn Lewis.

Antimatter thrusters are stable, but the fuel, although extractable by the technology of the Galactic Federation, means an antimatter thruster is essentially a ticking bomb if damaged first. Of course, once a spaceship’s engine starts to fail, whether it turns into a black hole or not is irrelevant, because it’s a goner either way.

As for traveling across Heritage Systems, Finn Lewis set that aside for now. He can’t even handle the current Heritage System, let alone others. The Galactic Federation has ruled the Heritage System for many years, but even now, the Heritage System is full of danger, with many places still unexplored by the Galactic Federation. The dangers of further star systems are beyond Finn Lewis’s reach for now.

Finn Lewis, curious, opened the entire propulsion engine list. He had unlocked the point exchange for up to one billion, so he could see engines above that amount. There were many kinds of engines, likely thousands or tens of thousands. Finn Lewis glanced over them, noting the Federation’s engine was merely mid-range among many more formidable ones.

Almost all were antimatter thrusters. When Finn Lewis scrolled to the engines worth tens of millions of points, the number of engines available thinned significantly. It seemed there weren’t many engines above ten million points, but those that were available were not antimatter thrusters. Instead, they were engines with names that sounded very sophisticated.

Space Gravitational Compression Engine. Finn Lewis did not know what principle this device operated on, but as he continued to scroll, reaching the highest-priced engine, he was astonished. This engine’s exchange price was 49 million points, the highest among all available.

There was nothing more expensive, and the name of this engine was even more impressive: Miniature White Dwarf Star Engine, or alternatively, Miniature Sun Engine.

“Luna Starfield, explain to me how this engine works,” Finn Lewis said, awestruck by the name.

“Actually, it’s pretty much as Your Highness imagines. It’s called the Miniature White Dwarf Star Engine, but forgive my frankness, Your Highness; my database exists only within the Galactic Federation. This technology clearly exceeds that of the Galactic Federation. I can only introduce it to Your Highness based on the technical description of the engine. In short, it compresses the energy of a star to a certain volume, then uses a mini white dwarf star as the engine for the entire spaceship. There’s a technology that encompasses the star with an energy matrix, allowing any radiation, light, heat, and so on that the mini white dwarf star releases to be converted into a power source,” said Luna Starfield promptly.

Finn Lewis was so surprised he choked on his saliva. Damn, using a star as an engine or, to put it another way, a sun as the engine—how large must that spaceship be? Although it’s called a miniature star, what is a star right now? Currently, stars can be said to be one of the most incredible astronomical objects in the universe.

Virtually all life depends on stars, and it’s common knowledge that most celestial bodies in the universe are derived from stars. What does it mean to compress the volume of a star? Of course, it’s possible. After a star has evolved for billions of years and reaches the end of its life cycle, its volume will compress and then turn into the well-known White Dwarf Star.

Whether it’s a White Dwarf Star or a Neutron Star, both are the endpoints of stellar evolution. Such celestial bodies, once encountered, make it almost impossible for a spaceship to escape their gravitational range. Of course, if the star continues to evolve, then it might turn into another ultimate celestial body in the universe, a black hole.

The terror of a black hole goes without saying, so however you look at it, this engine doesn’t seem reliable. Damn, it would require a star, but if Zero dares to list it here, it means it’s real.

“However, Your Highness need not worry; it shouldn’t be a natural celestial body but probably an artificial star,” Luna Starfield added.

Finn Lewis was speechless. He knew it wasn’t natural; if it were natural and compressed enough to be used as an engine, the intense gravity would crush anyone immediately to atoms—you simply couldn’t survive on it. Consider how large a star like the sun would be if it turned into a Neutron Star.

It would only be about 10 to 30 kilometers in diameter. Imagine how much the sun weighs. With such a terrifying mass concentrated into a sphere of that size, you can imagine how intense its gravity would be. If the Earth was compressed to that density, it would be only 22 meters in diameter. Just think about it.

Such gravity could tear any material known to Finn Lewis into shreds. As for the unknown, whether there is anything impressive enough to challenge a Neutron Star, Finn Lewis had no idea, so it definitely couldn’t be a natural star.

But even an artificial star is quite impressive. Can a star be artificial?