05-29-2020, 10:28 AM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2010
|
[Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
Here's a fun exercise: according to the letter of the rules in GURPS Space, what the maximum number of inhabitable (i.e. Garden) worlds you can have in a star system? This isn't about what's likely, just what's possible, if you are carefully picking the results of every die roll to produce the desired result. I think the answer is thirty-six, but I'd like to have other people check my reasoning.
I don't see anything in the rules to stop you from having three nearly identical stars in a system. Lets suppose they each have a mass of 1.25 that of Sol, and furthermore the system is 4.1 billion years old. That yields a luminosity of 3.2. We'll also assume the two stars closest to each other orbit about 8 AU apart, while the third star orbits 16 AU from the combined center of mass of the first two. The snow line will be located at 7.03 AU. Suppose each system has eccentric gas giants, and among other things has gas giants at about 1.6 and 2.24 AU. These—and crucially, their moons—will have blackbody temperatures of 294K and 248K. If every gas giant has six moons and all are standard or large garden worlds, that's 3 stars x 2 gas giants per star x 6 moons per gas giant = 36 habitable worlds. Of course, this is a wildly unlikely result, but it does somewhat suggest a strategy for building a star system where the number of habitable worlds is large but won't immediately be noticed by your players as requiring completely absurd coincidences. Unless I've missed a rule that would prohibit the above—have I? |
05-29-2020, 10:44 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
|
Re: [Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
That seems good. It is highly likely that it is a terraformed system though.
|
05-29-2020, 11:10 AM | #3 |
Join Date: May 2010
|
Re: [Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
|
05-29-2020, 01:16 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Dallas, TX
|
Re: [Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
You can probably get up to five stars, not three:
Quote:
|
|
05-29-2020, 02:53 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
|
Re: [Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
Octuple systems are probably the largest where every star could have stable planets, and I am not sure we have seen any. For example, you could have two pairs, each pair with a separation of 120 AU between the two partners, with a separation of 720 AU between the two pairs, and an second identical two pairs with a separation of 3600 AU from the first two pair. Anything higher order than would break away from the system after a few hundred million years.
|
05-29-2020, 02:53 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
|
Re: [Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
|
05-29-2020, 06:10 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: May 2010
|
Re: [Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
Quote:
I'm not sure if this means you think 10 garden worlds in a star system is still completely absurd, or that a star system consisting of three identical sub-systems orbit each other is completely absurd. |
|
05-29-2020, 06:43 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
|
Re: [Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
Since the system gives you exact probabilities thanks to it being rules and tables for dice, you could calculate the exact degree of absurdity in your coincidence.
|
05-30-2020, 02:25 AM | #9 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
Re: [Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
I wouldn't use such a system. Players would immediately be sure that it was artificial, and would regard the mystery of how it came about as fascinating. This would distract from any other kind of story set there.
__________________
The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
05-30-2020, 09:25 AM | #10 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
|
Re: [Space] Star system with thirty-six inhabitable worlds?
If all other systems in the setting are more realistic, then I'd question the curiosity of the players if they didn't assume this one was artificial.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
|
|