History Main / ExplosionsInSpace

* There are lots of these in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' after a StandardStarshipScuffle with an enemy vessel.
** Averted in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', where starships that are damaged enough will have their life support systems fail, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome leading to the deaths of the crew]], and the ship becoming a drifting wreck.

* In ''VideoGame/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.
** Nobody's perfect, though: Torpedoes still give a great planar shockwave. So do large structures when they go BOOM. Every time a Drone Silo is blown up, a planar shockwave comes with the explosion, free of charge.
** They do get the "Explosion moves on original trajectory at original velocity" bit, at least. Sadly, the same can't be said for the wreck that's left behind, though that's so you don't have to go chasing it down when you want to loot it.
** The Sound Effects are justified in game by the simple fact that everything you see as a pod pilot is a VR simulation of actual events, piped directly into your head while you are safely curled up inside your pod full of goo. Apparently early versions of the Pod tech didn't bother with Sound but the lack of it tended to send the (already mentally unbalanced) capsuleers completely insane.

* In ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' nukes produce a small spherical blast in space, and the only other explosives are acid and nanite bombs that leave a sphere-shaped corrosive cloud. And when used in OrbitalBombardment nukes produce a sphere again but substantially bigger.
** 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 [[DolphinsDolphinsEverywhere 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.

* ''VideoGame/StarFox'' games do this as well, with ships mostly breaking apart after being hit or the classic "BOMB" item going in a perfect sphere.

* In ''Literature/TheCityWhoFought'', 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.

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[[folder:Film]]

* Averted in ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' when [[spoiler:King Radical becomes President and has his vice president [[TheDragon Ron Wizard]] detonate all of Russia's nukes to simultaneously present himself as an unassailable world power and [[VillainWithGoodPublicity a hero for peace]].]] The explosions are drawn realistically with the AltText thanking the Kennedy administration for providing reference photos.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Manga/{{Planetes}}'', being a hard science fiction, 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 ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', 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. The creators fully intended for all space battles to be silent, but upon viewing the results, decided it was too unnatural and inserted sound effects. In a nod to original intent, all sound effects in space are still noticeably subdued.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

--> '''Capt. Zarde:''' ''[[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud Pyew! Pyow Bwommmkssrrch!]] Augh! This sucks!''

* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'' [[spoiler:only has one explosion, which is justified as it is fueled by oxygen form inside the Endurance and [[SpaceIsNoisy realistically is soundless]] observed from another spacecraft.]]

** In ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', it's revealed early on that the sixth planet in a star system exploded, causing a shockwave that knocked the fifth planet off it's orbit, turning it into a desolate wasteland. Mike Okuda points out in the commentary that shockwaves do not propagate through the vacuum of space.

* These happen frequently in ''Franchise/StarTrek'', especially after ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', and a [[StuffBlowingUp warp core breach]] is one of the main ways that starships are destroyed, either intentionally, or due to battle damage.

* In the DCAU tie-in ''Justice League'' comic story "[[PunnyName Disarmed]]", Green Lantern evicts an alien bomb off of Earth, making a comment that he never gets used to how quiet explosions are in space. The explosion is represented primarily as a sphere of light (with pointy bits on the compass points).

* ''Manga/{{Planetes}}'', being on the hard end of the SlidingScale/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.

* ''Manga/{{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.