Super basic dumb science question

[Ursa major]

and saves them from being ripped apart constantly

There's also the opportunity to garner wolf whistles before the transformation takes place....

 

[Parson]

 

[zmunkz]

This is an interesting idea, but not stable because you'd need the orbiting moon to precess, which is like trying to get a gyroscope to rotate around a line through its plane of rotation, and that would make the gyroscope/orbit wobble.

I’m a bit rusty on my orbital mechanics, but it seems possible to me, especially in a soft scifi setting. Something similar occurs with the planetary orbital plane already, so you just need to add it to the lunar orbital plane, then fine-tune the precession too perfectly orient with the relative position of the planet around the star.

Probably no good for hard scifi.

Apsidal precession - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Dave]

werewolf astronaut

How do werewolf astronauts poop in space suits?

...the only place one can observe a fully illuminated 'face' of a sphere is if you are near the line between it and the illuminating source. Anywhere else you will see a terminator or a completely dark face.

Binary or multiple star systems could provide multiple illuminating sources??

 

[Ursa major]

Binary or multiple star systems could provide multiple illuminating sources??

Unfortunately for werewolves (unless they'd rather not be in their lupine form), they also provide the planet with more sunlight and from more directions....

 

[Dave]

Unfortunately for werewolves (unless they'd rather not be in their lupine form), they also provide the planet with more sunlight and from more directions....

Doh! I didn't actually consider that it there was always bright starlight, that you could never see the light from the silvery moon.

 

[Danny McG]

I think it's time that someone wrote a story with sunlight werewolves.
At dusk they revert to normal people and learn to dread the dawn when the savage beast takes over

 

[Dave]

Or, you could have a binary star system with one star emitting mostly visible and infra-red radiation, the other an older, hotter star, emitting mostly ultra-violet radiation. Then you could have the Lycanthropy to be triggered only when the first star is hidden and the second visible.

(Still need an answer on spacesuits!)

 

[Brian G Turner]

bright starlight

That raises an interesting point - if you put your world somewhere like a globular cluster (where the stars are really close together), you wouldn't even need a moon - the stars would be so big and bright that the effect could be like having multiple full moons at night:

 

[Venusian Broon]

That raises an interesting point - if you put your world somewhere like a globular cluster (where the stars are really close together), you wouldn't even need a moon - the stars would be so big and bright that the effect could be like having multiple full moons at night:

Chances of having a stable planetary orbit must dramatically fall though in such situations (Especially if you mistake a star for a moon, even a small one, that's damn close!)

Remember that all the planetary movements, potential ejections of worlds etc. in the NICE model came about possibly because at the time the Sun was young having been birthed in a cluster and this there were lots of gravitational nudges from big stars. Currently we are, thankfully, quite a distance away from big stars, so our solar system is relatively stable.

 

[Ursa major]

Chances of having a stable planetary orbit must dramatically fall though in such situations

Not if magic, technology that looks like magic, or a virtual world was involved....

 

[-K2-]

I'll say this once again for the OP (who has yet to return to the thread), I still think this is being aproched from the wrong side of the problem. I'll save my fingers and simply point: Super basic dumb science question

K2

 

[Ursa major]

I still think this is being aproched from the wrong side of the problem

The thing is: we can bend real science out of all recognition in order to make a story work, but well-known fantasy tropes are simply off limits, i.e. tamper with them at your peril!

​

 

[Dave]

I still think this is being aproched from the wrong side of the problem.

Why--in your world--do werewolves need to be affected by the light of a full moon? Couldn't they simply be inspired by the lack of direct sunlight to accomplish the same ends?

Maybe, just maybe, there is some property of "Moonlight" that we have not yet identified as the factor.

Dung Beetles (unlike other nocturnal creatures) can navigate using polarised Moonlight. All Moonlight is slightly partially linearly polarised, however, at Full Moon the Moonlight is unpolarised, so it cannot be polarisation that is the property.

Maybe something to do with the wavelength of the light, but Moonlight isn't actually "silvery" or bluish. That we see it that way is only an effect of our peak vision receptors being more into the blue. So, it cannot be the "Blueness."

He could invent a new property of light to be the cause. I suggest he gives this property the name of "Optick" and measures it in units of "Alhazens."

 

[-K2-]

Maybe something to do with the wavelength of the light, but Moonlight isn't actually "silvery" or bluish. That we see it that way is only an effect of our peak vision receptors being more into the blue. So, it cannot be the "Blueness."

Since this needs to be scientifically nonsensical (you people and your round earth silliness ), that won't fly due to Earth's atmosphere stripping out various wavelengths dependent upon the moon's elevation above the horizon... We call it "werewolf-proofing." Proof of that being how a werewolf changes back when a cloud passes in front of the moon. I know that part IS true. I saw it in a movie

Anywho, chew on this a little if you want to use spectral bands of moonlight as your trigger: OliNo » Blog Archive » Spectrum of moon light then compare it to how the atmosphere strips out wavelengths (you know... why are sunsets not green ).

K2

 

[Dave Carignan]

Can't find the answer on Google and I feel like an idiot that I don't know the answer, but here it is.

Would it be possible for a fictional planet to have a permanent full moon? In other words, the orbits of the planet and the moon are such that the moon never goes through phases and its planet-facing surface is always fully illuminated by the planet's star.

This is an idea for a story that involves a werewolf astronaut, so...

I didn’t read most of the answers so maybe this was mentioned or not. Look into Pluto’s relationship with its moon Charon. They are gravitationally locked together so the same side of each faces each other all the time. Maybe researching that a bit will help you out. It’s not always going to be dark because the sun still shines faintly on the planet but it could give you an idea of something we don’t experience.

 

[sinister42]

Wow, this blew up - thanks for all the thoughtful responses. I'll dig into them more later. For now:

-My werewolves exist as humanoid except during the full moon, which for simplicity's sake I've defined as the one night of the month that is commonly accepted as the full moon. I recognize that a moon is actually only "full" for a short time because the orbits are constantly moving, but it "appears" full for the entire night, and that's good enough to keep a wolf a wolf for the entire night.

-My astronaut doesn't start as a werewolf, and in fact being bitten will set something in motion where he has to find a magical maguffin that allows him to control when he changes into a wolf, so that he can launch into space to rescue his love interest who has been abducted by aliens.

-I hadn't considered the question of what would happen to him in orbit, but this story will involve FTL travel so there's not much of that to worry about. The key is that the planet where his love interest is being held has a permanent full moon, so he'd transform into a wolf immediately upon landing unless he procures the maguffin.

I think I'm going to go with a binary or trinary star system to where at least one of the stars is fully illuminating the planet-facing side of the moon at all times.

Y'all rock.

 

[sinister42]

The "magic" in my story that allows for werewolves (and vampires etc) to exist isn't necessarily based on any physical phenomenon related to percentage of moonlight or anything like that. Actually, my vampire hunter - Steve Van Helsing - explains it better than I can:


“One question,” said Angela. “In your experience as a vampire hunter…which religious artifacts work against them? I mean, I guess I’m trying to ask, like…”

“Which religion is true? All of them, really. In a way. Sort of. A vamp will recoil at a Buddha as quickly as it’ll recoil at a cross. It’s not the literal power of God or whatever that hurts them. I’m not actually sure what it is, but I have my theories. I think it’s more of a humanist idea –the fact that humans, mere mortals, can collectively create an idea as powerful as a religion, can collectively believe something so massive without any evidence, and pour that collective energy into it, into the hope of something bigger than themselves, somehow that positive, collective energy can damage a vampire. It’s not that religions are true, per se. It’s the focused energy of the human, of the mortal, to try to find meaning in the meaninglessness of existence – somehow, that energy is poison to a vampire.”

“But there has to be something beyond science, or vampires and werewolves wouldn’t be possible, right?” said Angela.

“Possibly. But what was it someone said once? Any sufficiently advanced science would be indistinguishable from magic? We just don’t have an answer for how werewolves and vampires work right now. But maybe one day science will figure them out too.”

“An atheist vampire hunter. Never thought I’d see the day,” said Angela.

“Not an atheist,” said Steve. “A humanist. An optimist, really. I believe in people. And that’s why I want to protect them against monsters.”

 

[sinister42]

That's from the first draft, which was my National Novel Writing Month project this year (and I won! yay!) That scene is definitely staying (with the language tightened up) but most of the rest of the story is changing pretty dramatically.

 

[RJM Corbet]

“Not an atheist,” said Steve. “A humanist. An optimist, really. I believe in people. And that’s why I want to protect them against monsters.”

Buffy gets woke, lol ...?