# Alpha Centauri - help needed!



## Jo Zebedee (Jun 20, 2017)

I am working at a sequel to Inish Carraig. 

I need two possible planets - one Earth-like - within Space Opera levels of conceiveability of proximity to Earth. 

The two planets need to either share a system or be close enough to make a spatial war possible. 

I'm happy to handwavium the travel between planets. So, without getting too technical, is there any reason that Alpha Centauri AB/Proxima couldn't provide the two planets needed? 

Also - are there any other systems I should be looking at?


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## TheDustyZebra (Jun 20, 2017)

What about that one they discovered recently with seven planets? I can't remember where it was, but it seems like it was relatively close.


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## Alexa (Jun 20, 2017)

If you are interested in Alpha Centauri, you may be interested in the links provided in the thead below

Alpha Centauri has a planet


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## Parson (Jun 20, 2017)

Jo, you  might want to take a look at David Weber's "For the Honor of the Queen." He has a pair of planets in a binary system who are waging war. You might get some ideas from that.


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## SilentRoamer (Jun 20, 2017)

Jo Zebedee said:


> I am working at a sequel to Inish Carraig.
> 
> I need two possible planets - one Earth-like - within Space Opera levels of conceiveability of proximity to Earth.
> 
> ...



Yay! I wanted backstory!

Ok so what level of technology are you positing for the Barathna and Xelo? Do they have FTL? If they do spatial distances are irrelevant. Do they have wormhole technology or something like that? Or are we talking about standard spacecraft burning fuel?

A binary star system could work quite well, especially given the different natures of the Xelo and Barathna and would make interplanetary war plausible. With the tech they would most likely have planet busting bombs (or at least a few thousand nukes) would cause some major damage so likely they would have some automated defence systems and rely heavily on AI drone technology (although maybe AI is something they never developed, who knows - your story!)

So yeah lots of things you can do with it Jo and looking forward to reading the sequel.


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## Jo Zebedee (Jun 20, 2017)

TheDustyZebra said:


> What about that one they discovered recently with seven planets? I can't remember where it was, but it seems like it was relatively close.



I might look into that one - I remember at the time thinking it might suit the IC world well.  



Alexa said:


> If you are interested in Alpha Centauri, you may be interested in the links provided in the thead below
> 
> Alpha Centauri has a planet



Thank you! Perfect! 



Parson said:


> Jo, you  might want to take a look at David Weber's "For the Honor of the Queen." He has a pair of planets in a binary system who are waging war. You might get some ideas from that.



I think I have that one on my kindle. Will go take a look  


SilentRoamer said:


> Yay! I wanted backstory!
> 
> Ok so what level of technology are you positing for the Barathna and Xelo? Do they have FTL? If they do spatial distances are irrelevant. Do they have wormhole technology or something like that? Or are we talking about standard spacecraft burning fuel?
> 
> ...



Yes, young writing peeps. Always devise your world before writing your book. Or you'll end up with a headache when starting a sequel.... 

I haven't decided yet between FTL or wormhole. FTL is more of a stretch but a better fit for the world and keeps the claustrophobic nature better, I think. Definitely AI tech as I need it for another element of the story. 

Let's hope it works!


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## Mirannan (Jun 20, 2017)

TheDustyZebra said:


> What about that one they discovered recently with seven planets? I can't remember where it was, but it seems like it was relatively close.



Yep. Seven planets, three in the life zone. NASA link:

NASA Telescope Reveals Record-Breaking Exoplanet Discovery

Incidentally, the primary is a red dwarf; so all these worlds are close together - probably closer than Jupiter's moons.


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## Ursa major (Jun 20, 2017)

Mirannan said:


> the primary is a red dwarf


Which the article calls an "ultra-cool dwarf star". (I _knew_ The Fonz was an alien. Now I know where he came from.)

No wonder the inhabitants of the TRAPPIST-1 system are keeping quiet about themselves.


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## Jo Zebedee (Jun 20, 2017)

Mirannan said:


> Yep. Seven planets, three in the life zone. NASA link:
> 
> NASA Telescope Reveals Record-Breaking Exoplanet Discovery
> 
> Incidentally, the primary is a red dwarf; so all these worlds are close together - probably closer than Jupiter's moons.


Perfect - ty


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## SilentRoamer (Jun 21, 2017)

Common consensus in the scientific community is that almost all stars have at lease a single orbiting planet. 

I would expect based on a law of averages and based on the mechanisms that form solar systems that almost all stars will have a multi-planetary setup, even if you just see a division in material weight (gas giants vs rock planets).

So I don't think the 7 planetary system above is anything particularly special, most likely it is a few tiny swirls of pebbles in an ocean of them. 400 billion stars in our galaxy alone - that's a lot of chances for planets!


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## Danny McG (Jun 21, 2017)

Go all out with it.
Have them gate in from a parallel universe.
Then they can mention the Earth of their own continuum, with the Emerald Isle a sterile radioactive wasteland cos Bush led Tony Blair down a wrong path in The War against Terror.


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## Jo Zebedee (Jun 21, 2017)

dannymcg said:


> Go all out with it.
> Have them gate in from a parallel universe.
> Then they can mention the Earth of their own continuum, with the Emerald Isle a sterile radioactive wasteland cos Bush led Tony Blair down a wrong path in The War against Terror.


Sadly not supported by book one, I fear   pesky sequels...


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## Galactic Journey (Jul 16, 2017)

Alexa said:


> If you are interested in Alpha Centauri, you may be interested in the links provided in the thead below
> 
> Alpha Centauri has a planet



I'm afraid it don't exist.


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## Galactic Journey (Jul 16, 2017)

Jo Zebedee said:


> I am working at a sequel to Inish Carraig.
> 
> I need two possible planets - one Earth-like - within Space Opera levels of conceiveability of proximity to Earth.
> 
> ...



Alpha Centauri could have two planets that fit your description.  So could almost any star within an arbitrary distance.  Our telescopes have not gotten good enough to exclude terrestrial-sized planets from any star.  In twenty years, we should have full maps of the nearest stars down to the sub-Earth level, but for now, you're as free from restriction as you might have been 50 years ago (with the exception of the few nearby systems that have been proven to host planets -- you'd have to work around those).


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## Alexa (Jul 16, 2017)

They don't really have to exist in a novel.


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## Galactic Journey (Jul 16, 2017)

That's true, but for something to be science fiction, it should conform at least to known facts!


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## Alexa (Jul 16, 2017)

It didn't stop Avatar's story.


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## Jo Zebedee (Jul 16, 2017)

Galactic Journey said:


> That's true, but for something to be science fiction, it should conform at least to known facts!


Really? Since when was ftl spacetravel a known fact?

Whilst I would prefer to keep things reasonably accurate the story is never presented as anything other than escapist fun


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## Vertigo (Jul 16, 2017)

I seriously wouldn't worry too much about it Jo. Our knowledge of _rocky_ exoplanets is still so limited I think you can put them almost anywhere you like.


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## Abernovo (Jul 16, 2017)

What Vertigo says. We know so little. You have a fair bit of leeway.

Of course, if you want an excuse for why the planet's never been detected, it might be in a dust cloud (there has been speculation of dense interplanetary dust in that system). Or, those tricky aliens, they might have stealthed their planet.


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## Alexa (Jul 16, 2017)

Jo, I have a nice space photo you can use for inspiration.


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## Jo Zebedee (Jul 16, 2017)

Abernovo said:


> What Vertigo says. We know so little. You have a fair bit of leeway.
> 
> Of course, if you want an excuse for why the planet's never been detected, it might be in a dust cloud (there has been speculation of dense interplanetary dust in that system).



Sadly, I already gone and used that one in Abendau


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## Parson (Jul 17, 2017)

Alexa said:


> View attachment 38097



Well this looks like the setting for a more SF and less comic book version of Wonder Woman.


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## Brian G Turner (Jul 17, 2017)

Jo Zebedee said:


> Sadly, I already gone and used that one in Abendau



Alpha Centauri almost certainly has planets - the more we search space, the more we find planetary systems around stars are the norm. The great unknowns are simply the sizes, orbits, and compositions of such planets.


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## SilentRoamer (Jul 17, 2017)

Brian G Turner said:


> Alpha Centauri almost certainly has planets - the more we search space, the more we find planetary systems around stars are the norm. The great unknowns are simply the sizes, orbits, and compositions of such planets.



Yeah I gotta agree with our overlord. I suspect it is actually far less likely for there to be a star in existence without planets - although I still expect these to be numerous given the statistical values we are working with. 

At the least I would expect most star formation to blow out the lighter gases and form orbiting gas giants - at least with the composition of modern stars - them being all light and Hydrogen-y.


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## Ursa major (Jul 18, 2017)

Jo Zebedee said:


> I need two possible planets


What you need is a disclaimer:

"No rocky exoplanets were observed in the creation of this book."​


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## hej (Oct 7, 2017)

Jo Zebedee said:


> I need two possible planets - one Earth-like - within Space Opera levels of conceiveability of proximity to Earth.
> 
> The two planets need to either share a system or be close enough to make a spatial war possible.
> 
> ...



I have no idea about specific systems. I regularly read about astronomy but have not read up much on exoplanets.

You may find the following links helpful.

Terrestrial planet - Wikipedia
List of nearest terrestrial exoplanet candidates - Wikipedia
and also,
Earth analog - Wikipedia
Exoplanet - Wikipedia


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## Justin Swanton (Oct 7, 2017)

If you want realism it's probably better to avoid red dwarfs. The planets in their goldilocks zones will almost certainly be tidally locked and that poses huge problems for life. But, heck, science fiction isn't all that much about the science...


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## Danny McG (Oct 7, 2017)

It's science fiction, not science realism. Give it a thousand planets that constantly jockey for orbit space. Give it just one planet but have it made out of chewing gum. It's your story.

Tbh those 'hard' sci fi books with plausible physics and lots of little equations and drawings get on my nerves, too much info.

I'm currently reading a spy thriller and hero is in a car chase, I do not expect to turn the page to find a detailed explanation of the internal combustion engine with cutaway images. 

Some people enjoy deeply detailed sci fi  like that, I prefer the plot moving along instead of zoning me out.


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## Mirannan (Oct 8, 2017)

Justin Swanton said:


> If you want realism it's probably better to avoid red dwarfs. The planets in their goldilocks zones will almost certainly be tidally locked and that poses huge problems for life. But, heck, science fiction isn't all that much about the science...



Quite. But that doesn't apply to Earth-sized moons of gas giants in the Goldilocks zone of a red dwarf. Admittedly, in a case like that the day length would be fairly long - but they wouldn't be tide locked to the sun.


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