History Main / InterstellarWeapon

* Near-Earth asteroids
* Gamma ray bursts

* There really isn't anything stopping us from firing a nuke at another solar system in the same way we launched Voyager and New Horizons out of our orbit. It would have to use a device that doesn't require any short lived isotopes though.

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]] (well, technically, a [[CloningGambit clone]] of him, once acquired a magical artifact called the "Chalice of Ruin", which had the ability to send powerful waves of destruction that would bombard every planet in the universe and wipe them all of life. Obviously he was stopped before he could do too much damage.

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanoos]] (well, technically, a [[CloningGambit clone]] of him, once acquired a magical artifact called the "Chalice of Ruin", which had the ability to send powerful waves of destruction that would bombard every planet in the universe and wipe them all of life. Obviously he was stopped before he could do too much damage.

** There's also a number of others, including terapedoes (missiles fitted with a [[{{Teleporter}} teraport system]], theoretically letting them hit any target in the galaxy, often from the inside. Pity [[NoWarpingZone Teraport Area Denial]] systems are common), orbital plasma lances[[note]]ok, that was once, and it only sterilised an asteroid in interstellar space before the beam diffused enough to be harmless[[/note]], cee-sabots[[note]]foil darts accelerated to relativistic velocities[[/note]], and the Pa'anuri occasionally induce supernovae and use the blast wave to kill everything living in nearby systems.

* In "Literature/TheStar", a ShortStory by Creator/HGWells, when the [[SwitchingPOV perspective changes]] to the Martian astronomers, it's suddenly revealed that [[TheNamesake the titular star]] was actually a missile that had been fired from outside the solar system.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has the Long-Gunner Of The Apocalypse, an energy weapon the size of a planetoid, which fires through instantaneous wormholes and can hit any place in the galaxy.

* Relativistic weapons, if they are ever developed. While they may travel slower than light, they still are nearly impossible to see coming, since its own light would only be slightly outpacing it. Once you see a relativistic weapon being launched towards you, [[OhCrap it's already most of the way here, it's not where it seems to be, and every second it gets millions of kilometers closer to you]]. Fortunately, [[HopeSpot there are ways you can counter it]]. Namely, you use its own ''massive'' kinetic energy against it. [[https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ As explained]] in Creator/RandallMunroe's Blog/WhatIf, any collision involving relativistic speeds is so energetic that atoms ''fuse'' at the site of impact. Even a small pebble standing in the path of a relativistic kill vehicle will cause a large thermonuclear explosion, reducing both it and the kill vehicle to a cloud of hot plasma unless the latter is somehow MadeOfIndestructium. Granted, that plasma is still speeding at you nearly at the speed of light, but at least it's now much more dispersed. If detected sufficiently early (possibly with the help of a SubspaceAnsible), the worst you'll suffer is a mild EMP as the plasma and is deflected by your planet's magnetosphere like a small solar flare.

* Relativistic weapons, if they are ever developed. While they may travel slower than light, they still are nearly impossible to see coming, since its own light would only be slightly outpacing it. Once you see a relativistic weapon being launched towards you, [[OhCrap it's already most of the way here, it's not where it seems to be, and every second it gets millions of kilometers closer to you]]. Fortunately, [[HopeSpot there are ways you can counter it]]. Namely, you use its own ''massive'' kinetic energy against it. [[https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ As explained]] in Creator/RandallMunroe's Blog/WhatIf, any collision involving relativistic speeds is so energetic that atoms ''fuse'' at the site of impact. Even a small pebble standing in the path of a relativistic kill vehicle will cause a large thermonuclear explosion, reducing both it and the kill vehicle to a cloud of hot plasma unless the latter is somehow MadeOfIndestructinum. Granted, that plasma is still speeding at you nearly at the speed of light, but at least it's now much more dispersed. If detected sufficiently early (possibly with the help of a SubspaceAnsible), the worst you'll suffer is a mild EMP as the plasma and is deflected by your planet's magnetosphere like a small solar flare.

* Relativistic weapons, if they are ever developed. While they may travel slower than light, they still are nearly impossible to see coming, since its own light would only be slightly outpacing it. Once you see a relativistic weapon being launched towards you, [[OhCrap it's already most of the way here, it's not where it seems to be, and every second it gets millions of kilometers closer to you]]. Fortunately, [[HopeSpot there are ways you can counter it]]. Namely, you use its own ''massive'' kinetic energy against it. [[https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ As explained]] in Creator/RandallMunroe's Blog/WhatIf, any collision involving relativistic speeds is so energetic that atoms ''fuse'' at the site of impact. Even a small pebble standing in the path of a relativistic kill vehicle will cause a large thermonuclear explosion, reducing both it and the kill vehicle to a cloud of hot plasma unless the latter is somehow MadeOfIndestructinium. Granted, that plasma is still speeding at you nearly at the speed of light, but at least it's now much more dispersed. If detected sufficiently early (possibly with the help of a SubspaceAnsible), the worst you'll suffer is a mild EMP as a fraction of the plasma and other charged particles push against your planet's magnetosphere.

* Relativistic weapons, if they are ever developed. While they may travel slower than light, they still are nearly impossible to see coming, since its own light would only be slightly outpacing it. Once you see a relativistic weapon being launched towards you, [[OhCrap it's already most of the way here, it's not where it seems to be, and there's no way to stop it]]. The only conceivable way to thwart such a weapon is having an SubspaceAnsible-equipped spy report its launch at origin point and using the remaining few years to evacuate your planet. Or have your own relativistic weapons triggered by a Russian style Dead Hand computer.

An Interstellar Weapon is distinct from a starship or an automated weapons platform. A starship or weapons platform goes over to the target and blows the hell out of it. An Interstellar Weapon either fires its payload from one star system, which proceeds to impact a target in another star system, or it is the payload that gets delivered from one star system to the other.

An InterstellarWeapon is distinct from a starship or an automated weapons platform. A starship or weapons platform goes over to the target and blows the hell out of it. An InterstellarWeapon either fires its payload from one star system, which proceeds to impact a target in another star system, or it is the payload that gets delivered from one star system to the other.

* This turns out to be the First Order's SuperweaponSurprise in ''Film/TheForceAwakens''. Not only can it one-shot a planet from lightyears away, but it can actually fire on multiple planets in one launch. It consumes an entire ''star'' to do this, and is so large that it effectively takes up the entire planet it's on.

* The [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/48fe49fe47202 Nicoll-Dyson laser]] of ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm''. There is also a weapon called a Killer Star, it causes a star to go supernova but in such a way that most of the energy is sent in one direction.
** WebOriginal/OrionsArm has DysonSphere powered planet-killer beam weapons, kinetic relativistic kill vehicles aplenty, monopole-based 'conversion bombs' which can destroy stars, and more, almost always wielded by transapients. The highest Archai, however, have access to [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/49fe3e605d052 Metric Bombs]], which are essentially [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/493e974094949 void ships]] turned into weapons. They can travel across space at near the speed of light almost entirely undetected inside a void bubble, and destroy entire star systems by altering the very nature of spacetime at the heart of the central star and causing it to go supernova regardless of its mass. All that remains afterward is a black hole.

* The really isn't anything stopping us from firing a nuke at another solar system in the same way we launched Voyager and New Horizons out of our orbit. It would have to use a device that doesn't require any short lived isotopes though.

* ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' sees intelligent insects launch an asteroid through interstellar space to take out Buenos Aires. The book has something similar, except its version makes some actual sense.
** Hitting Buenos Aires with an asteroid from a planet light-years away is the equivalent of hitting someone on the other side of the planet with a pebble.
** There is some speculation that the attack on Buenos Aires was done by the humans themselves, in order to justify the war.
** It could also have been a random asteroid, which the military failed to intercept and decided to blame the aliens.

** There's also a number of others, including terapedoes (missiles fitted with a [[TeleportersAndTransporters teraport system]], theoretically letting them hit any target in the galaxy, often from the inside. Pity [[NoWarpingZone Teraport Area Denial]] systems are common), orbital plasma lances[[note]]ok, that was once, and it only sterilised an asteroid in interstellar space before the beam diffused enough to be harmless[[/note]], cee-sabots[[note]]foil darts accelerated to relativistic velocities[[/note]], and the Pa'anuri occasionally induce supernovae and use the blast wave to kill everything living in nearby systems.

* The Genesis Wave in the Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse. Based on the genesis device from ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', the weapon fires a reality-warping wave of energy programmed to {{Terraform}} worlds in its path - to make them resemble the homeworld of the aliens who built it. Launched from an AsteroidThicket, it destroys/reforms several planets in the ''[[Literature/StarTrekTheGenesisWave Genesis Wave]]'' series.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', one of the Goa'uld sends an asteroid bomb on a collision course with Earth from outside the solar system.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has had a few of these over the years, possibly the most famous being The Hand Of Omega which was a weapon to manipulate solar systems.

* [[RecycledScript Both "Dreadnought" and "Warhead"]] of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' involved warp-propelled warheads.

The Interstellar equivalent of the ICBM. You fire it from a star system or from interstellar space, and it will hit a target light years away.

* [[ReycledScript Both "Dreadnought" and "Warhead"]] of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' involved warp-propelled warheads.

* Both "Dreadnought" and "Warhead" of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' involved warp-propelled warheads.