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Old 08-09-2020, 11:00 AM   #1
Dr. Beckenstein
 
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Default First In - Planets for companion stars?

Out of sheer boredom (thanks, Corona!), I pulled out my old copy of First In and fiddled with the star / world generation. As I worked up a double star system (2 MV stars), I stumbled upon something.

Do I understand it right that the rules for "forbidden zones" (p. 54) prevent that companion stars can have their own planets?
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Old 08-09-2020, 11:38 AM   #2
thrash
 
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Default Re: First In - Planets for companion stars?

No, they just preclude planets in certain ranges of orbits, based on the separation between the primary and companion star. This is due to orbital instability: a planet in the "forbidden zone" is likely to be kicked out of the star system on a time-frame much less than the lifetime of the system.

So, for example: A Cen A and B orbit their common barycenter, with eccentricity ~ 0.5 but never getting closer than 11.2 AU (making A Cen B a Moderate or Wide companion, in GT:FI terms). Either star of the pair could have planets with stable orbits at less than 1/3 this distance, or <3.7 AU. This would encompass the entire inner Solar system, out to the edge of the Main Belt.

Note, however, that GT: First In (published in 1999) pre-dates most of the work on planetary migration and hot Jupiters that have come since, so some of its other assertions about where planets can wind up (e.g., inner limits and snow lines) have been rendered obsolete by more recent research.
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Old 08-11-2020, 04:21 PM   #3
ak_aramis
 
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Default Re: First In - Planets for companion stars?

The basic math of available orbits hasn't changed much — hill spheres are still hill spheres, tidal stress is still tidal stress. And so the exclusion zone is still the exclusion zone.

It's also worth noting that Hot Jupiters could happen under CT Bk6/MT/TNE/T4... just not with the currently detected frequencies.
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Old 08-14-2020, 03:58 AM   #4
Dr. Beckenstein
 
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Default Re: First In - Planets for companion stars?

Thanks for the answers.

Got it done - more or less -, but I had really to stretch the rules to make the result fit the canon. :-)
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