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Old 04-17-2013, 06:05 PM   #31
Agemegos
 
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Default Re: Meson alternatives?

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Sure it can. Just run a giant pole through the middle of the planet and the middle of the star.
You'd have to slow the planet to synchronous rotation as well, and even so the pole thus provided would not be the north pole of the planet.

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As far as Dinom goes, pretty sure that's atmosphere code E, ellipsoid, from CT.
Ah! So that one's a systematic error and not just a stuff-up by whomever fluffed the generator results into text?
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Old 04-17-2013, 06:12 PM   #32
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I've no idea if that's any better. A 1600 year orbit sounds as if it's quite a distance from the star. Can it really burn that bright at that distance?
Yes, if it's orbiting a supergiant; those figures are on the right scale for the life zones of Betelgeuse and Deneb.
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Old 04-17-2013, 06:14 PM   #33
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You'd have to slow the planet to synchronous rotation as well.
Nah, you can just use a giant motor attached to your pole to keep the planet spinning.
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Old 04-17-2013, 06:19 PM   #34
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Any effect that elongates the planet will similarly elongate the atmosphere.
You can blame that one on Larry Niven, and as far as I am concerned, if it's good enough for Larry Niven, it's good enough for me.


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Old 04-17-2013, 06:31 PM   #35
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BtC got that wrong:
<snip>
I've no idea if that's any better. A 1600 year orbit sounds as if it's quite a distance from the star. Can it really burn that bright at that distance? But it is at least different.
Yes, it is better, but as you rightly suspect it runs headlong into another problem. A star massive and bright enough to support a 1600-year orbit in its life zone would have to be a giant. I calculate that that is about right for O7III, O7IV, B0Ib, B0II, B1Ib, or A0Ia.

Such stars either don't live long (about two million years for an O7, I think) or they are actually dying, in the process of burning out with a final bright flash. In neither case will planets in these life zones have been warm enough long enough to develop a breathable atmosphere.
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Old 04-17-2013, 06:35 PM   #36
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You can blame that one on Larry Niven,
I think it actually goes back a little further, though I'm racking my middle-aged brain for details. A panel at a con designed a world on the fly, and on of the members (I think Harlan Ellison) wrote up the results. And they made just this error but with respect to tide-induced prolateness rather than spin-induced oblateness.

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and as far as I am concerned, if it's good enough for Larry Niven, it's good enough for me.
As I say, the laws of physics in the OTU are different from those in our universe.
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Old 04-17-2013, 06:42 PM   #37
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I think it actually goes back a little further, though I'm racking my middle-aged brain for details. A panel at a con designed a world on the fly, and on of the members (I think Harlan Ellison) wrote up the results. And they made just this error but with respect to tide-induced prolateness rather than spin-induced oblateness.
This sounds like Medea:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea:_Harlan%27s_World


And Niven had a hand in that as well.
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Old 04-17-2013, 06:49 PM   #38
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This sounds like Medea:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea:_Harlan%27s_World


And Niven had a hand in that as well.
That's the one! Thanks.
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Old 04-17-2013, 06:53 PM   #39
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You can blame that one on Larry Niven, and as far as I am concerned, if it's good enough for Larry Niven, it's good enough for me.


Hans
That sounds like a conflation of two different Niven planets and maybe a Hal Clemnts one..

Jinx was a high gravity world orbiting a gas giant with an egg-like shape. The poles were actually in vacuum or near vacuum. There may have been a habitable zone between the poles and the equator.

Plateau had a massive high altitude plateau where the air was breathable while it was unbreathable at lower altitudes.

Clements had a world that spun so fast that gravity was 3 Gs at the equator and 600 at the poles. I don't think he played with the atmosphere much though.
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Old 04-17-2013, 07:37 PM   #40
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As I say, the laws of physics in the OTU are different from those in our universe.
Not so. They're just subordinate to the Rule of Cool.

A long time ago I did a writeup of Forboldn that was inspired by Niven's Plateau and Anderson's High America. In a recent discussion I was forced to realize that the atmospheric situation I describe for Forboldn won't work. But I'm still not going to ruin my writeup by niggling attention to details like that, because I think the social and geopolitical situation makes for a fun roleplaying setting.

Not so long ago, I came up with an explanation for Heya and it's impossible moon Heya-minor that involves them being co-orbital bodies. Sadly, such a configuration is unstble and wouldn't have lasted long enough. But I'm still going to make them co-orbital bodies, because that's such an awesome concept.

And if I ever run a campaign in Jack Vance's Gaean reach, I'm going to keep the Rigel Concourse even if it (as I strongly suspect) doesn't actually work (A naturally occurring rosette of 26 worlds orbiting Rigel in the life zone).

And yet, if any of my players were to try to argue that the physical laws of my Traveller universe were different, based on Forboldn or Heya or Dinom, I'd cut him off at the knees. The physical laws aren't different; they're just optional on rare occasions.


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