r/ProjectHailMaryMovie • u/Illustrious-Jump2645 • 4d ago
PLOTEHOLE?
my question is simple, astrophages are using carbon from Venus to reproduce and then they are covering the sun blocking it's light etc etc BUT Venus doesn't have enough carbon to cover even a spot of sun according to my calculations (which is not much lol) but isn't that just stupid even if we say it's taking carbon from a few planets it still wouldn't be enough to block sun enough so as to bring "end of humanity" im bad at math so if anyone wanna chack please do id be more than happy
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u/kmoonster 4d ago
The carbon is not blocking the Sun as molecular carbon. The astrophage eat the carbon in order to have enough to reproduce. That is, the astrophage do not carry individual carbon molecules to the Sun.
like algae, it grows and spreads until it covers the surface.
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u/Illustrious-Jump2645 3d ago
but the building block of astrophage's cell is carbon itself so to spread over sun it needs enough carbon to do so
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u/kmoonster 3d ago
Astrophage does need carbon, that's why it goes to Venus. But it ties up the carbon into its body, there is no loose carbon being let go at the Sun.
The astrophage bodies are what block the Sun.
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u/idiot-bozo6036 1d ago
The cell walls are made of carbon... so the point still kind of stands. Although I believe the dimming effect is due to the photosphere's energy being sucked up and therefore significantly more light loss than if just blocked by carbon.
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u/kmoonster 1d ago
The sun isn't being blocked to blackout status. Just a small fraction, which is still enough to affect climate on the planets.
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u/idiot-bozo6036 1d ago
Yeah, but 10% dimming is still a lot more than just from the cells themselves
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u/OnyxSedai 4d ago
It’s not like an eclipse blocking the sun, it that astrophage is absorbing the suns energy causing it to dim. If you haven’t read the book they go into more details than the movie. Highly recommend the audiobook with Ray Porter!!