Ellerman Bombs

Basic Information

Despite the misleadingly cool name, Ellerman Bombs are not some sort of sci-fi weaponry, they're actually just a form of solar flare. They are small (in solar scale) solar filaments that move randomly across the photosphere of the sun.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia

Game and Story Use

• The area extremely close to a star is very dangerous, with high temperatures, temperature variations, and spontaneous explosions. Luckily, most spaceships have no reason to get that close. But here's a few ideas on how the plot might take them there:
• It could be part of a Dyson Swarm (or other Stellar Megastructure is malfunctioning and getting too close to the sun.
• The setting might use something like an Alderson Drive that requires getting very close to a star to achieve FTL.
• Bizarre energy beings that actually live in the corona of a star.
• Some negative space wedgie might knock out navigation, and cause their spacecraft to drift towards the star.
• Space Does Not Work That Way has never stopped Hollywood, why should it stop you?
  • I mean, if the thing's got the word "bomb" in the title, it ought to be used as a bomb! Make "Ellerman Bombs" a futuristic weapon that uses superheated plasma from the sun, or that creates superheated plasma like the sun.