On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Science Fiction

J-WO said:
Would any of the neighboring gas giants (Jupiter etc) look moon-sized from Saturn's perspective?
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Nope. Again, using simple maths:

The moon has a diameter of about 2,000 miles and is about 250,000 miles away, giving a ratio of about 1:125 (so it looks the size of a 1-metre disc held 125m away) (Sorry about the metric/imperial mix :eek:)

The sun is similar: 865,000 miles across to 93,000,000 miles away.

The nearest Saturn and Jupiter get is 332 million miles. Jupiter is 89,000 miles in diameter. This gives a ratio of 1:3730, a 1m disc held almost 4km away. It would still only ever be a bright dot.
 
Culhwch said:
(Or else we'll create laughably implausible worlds, most like.)
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I'd have thought, in the realm of fantasy, especially SF, there'd be absolutely no limit to anything. So there'd be no such thing as implausible, including an implausible world. You know, like even ha ha ha implausible.
 
HB- Ah, a shame. Mind you, Saturn's got its own moons I suppose. No shortage there.

Dream- technically, yeah. But Saturn would have to be shifted toward the Sun by some impressive scientific means.
 
hmmm... Random wormhole, geodesic fold perhaps?? or a black hole situated between saturn and the sun exerting enough gravitational pressure to pull saturn out of its orbit and towards it (though a black hole that powerful, would most likely destroy the entire solar system) :eek:
 
Niven, in 'A world out of time' mounted a drive on Uranus and flew it round the solar system, merely scaling up available technology (well, you need controlled hydrogen fusion, but that's nearly acquired already).

This would not be a fast move, and it would probably disrupt Saturn's rings quite seriously (no, I'm not going to look up how far off the ecliptic the ring system is) but it could be done if we remained sufficiently determined for a sufficiently long time.
 
chrispenycate said:
Niven, in 'A world out of time' mounted a drive on Uranus and flew it round the solar system.
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I'm sorry, Chris, but when I read this sentence out loud the schoolboy in me smirks. :eek:

I recall Olaf Stapledon had lots of planets flying around everywhere in Starmaker- can't remember the means of propulsion, though.
 
If you aren't to worried about time, you could move a planet further in or out usind a really big rock. Now I've only seen figures for Earth, but for Earth it's a case of taking a rock from the outer edges of the Solar System, around 60 miles across, aim it in the right direction, and wait. You need it to pass within about 6000 miles of the Earth. And depending on where you aim it , when it moves past the Earth it either imparts some energy to or removes energy from the Earths orbit speed. Each fly-by should shift the Earth around by about 10 miles (in or out). And if it works for the Earth, it will work for other planets.
 
Normally you would be right Ktabic, but Saturn is 95 times the size of the Earth, and is also a gas giant, generating a far greater gravitational attraction than the Earth.

I wouldnt want to see the size of the rock that could pull saturn out of its orbit, even for 10km. :eek:
 
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Size, in this case, doesn't matter. A 60 mile across rock aimed to pass Saturn at the right point would still cause Saturn to move. Just by a lot less. Now admittably I haven't done the sums for Saturn, so a 60 mile rock might have to pass to close to Saturn in order to have an affect. But it will still cause Saturn's orbit to change.
But it doesn't change the fact it would move. And enough passes of the rock (or stream of rocks) would allow you to move a planets orbit. The only real issue is time.
 
Culhwch said:
The Physics of Space Battles - Space battle - Gizmodo

An interesting read on the realities of space combat...
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The guy assumes we are restricted to present day physics, and 'conventional' (even if not yet actually built) drive systems. This is great for fifty years/a century hence, in system, but interstellar warfare (if desired) will require more advanced drive systems (modern techniques might, possibly get us between stars, but not with resources to fight on arrival) and trust humanity to develop weapons out of any new technology.

And his assumption that a space vessel will be short of available energy; assuming its drive can accelerate it at more than a microgee, it's got lots of energy. A laser or other direct energy weapon would hardly dent it. And a totally predictable, inertial weapons platform isn't cinematic.

On the other hand, it does get rid of the major problem with realistically scaled space battles; the fact that when your weapon arrives (after seconds for energy weapons, minutes for particle beams, and possibly hours for kinetic or explosive arms) its target is quite possibly not where you expected it to be.

Detection of a ship at any reasonable distance is a problem, too; unless you know where to look, even planets aren't that easy to find. Of course, if the things accelerating like mad there will be some sort of energy emissions passive detectors can find, but if it's just freewheeling, scanning for it -- well, read up on the battle of Midway, and multiply by many.

You can't do your weapons system till you've specified your main drive, and with a number of them (laser photon drive, as an example, or the Weber synthetic black hole in the 'Fury', your main drive is your principal weaponry, even if you have to go into battle tail first.
 
On a planet that is basically identical to earth in most ways except the shapes of the landmasses, what sort of cool extra-planetary bodies could I have in somewhat close proximity to the planet, that would make the night sky seem vastly different than ours, and without messing up anything on the planet that would make it un-earth like (tides for example).
I'm thinking perhaps a planet that is much nearer than any that is close to us, but not so close it would affect it in any adverse way? I'm also presuming different types and numbers of moons would definitly be a no-no considering their implication on the tides and so forth? Any ideas of cool things that I could put in there, to be viewable by folk on the planet in the night sky, but without affecting the planet adversly, would be just great.
if anyone could help, as always, I would be very grateful
 
Anything vaguely solid, and subtending a sufficiently large angle to be as impressive as our moon, would give tidal problems. So we need to go for something which is big, but diffuse, os smaller but bright. Putting your planet round one of a binary pair of stars could leave your tides reasonable, but make for some complicated seasons. You've already rejected my idea of putting rings round the planet; how about rings around the star, with dark bands marking the planetary orbits (rings always edge on to the planets, unfortunately) or a massive cloud of dust and gas in orbit, which fluoresces?

Or (try this one for size) a very small moon, consisting of heavy metals so its surface gravity is very high (for its size) so it can hold an atmosphere. Only dense gasses need apply; hydrogen, helium bleed off into space in a few hundred thousand years.
One heavy gas that wouldn't liquify in the cold; neon. As the absolute gravity is quite low, no excessive tides, and the atmosphere is thin, but quite deep.

Now hit this atmosphere with a stream of solar wind, electrically charged particles from the sun, and huge neon sign lights up the sky, swirling and storm-torn.

Do you think we could get it to spell 'Coca Cola'?
 
Sounds unlikely, Chris: the brand name, not the neon moon, which is an idea I do like.
 
chrispenycate said:
Anything vaguely solid, and subtending a sufficiently large angle to be as impressive as our moon, would give tidal problems. So we need to go for something which is big, but diffuse, os smaller but bright. Putting your planet round one of a binary pair of stars could leave your tides reasonable, but make for some complicated seasons. You've already rejected my idea of putting rings round the planet; how about rings around the star, with dark bands marking the planetary orbits (rings always edge on to the planets, unfortunately) or a massive cloud of dust and gas in orbit, which fluoresces?

Or (try this one for size) a very small moon, consisting of heavy metals so its surface gravity is very high (for its size) so it can hold an atmosphere. Only dense gasses need apply; hydrogen, helium bleed off into space in a few hundred thousand years.
One heavy gas that wouldn't liquify in the cold; neon. As the absolute gravity is quite low, no excessive tides, and the atmosphere is thin, but quite deep.

Now hit this atmosphere with a stream of solar wind, electrically charged particles from the sun, and huge neon sign lights up the sky, swirling and storm-torn.

Do you think we could get it to spell 'Coca Cola'?
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Don't recall asking this question before, but my memory is a bit crappy, so sorry if you've already answered this before and I've forgot or something:eek:

Yeah I like the idea of the bright neon moon actually. So what colour might this moon appear as? And would it possibly change colours or anything? Also when you say swirling and storm-torn, do you mean storms might be visable from the planet surface? Also would it not light up the night sky to a large degree, more than our moon? And how big do you think it would appear in comparison to our moon?
 
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