#ScienceFiction is informed by #Science
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@benroyce @rozeboosje Yep. On long-exposure photographs, also the Pleiades show a dust nebula containing the cluster, and illuminated by it in reflected light.
The Pleiades are a bit older but not very old, some 100 million years. How do we know? From its colour-magnitude diagram. The cluster contains hot, bright blue stars that are still burning hydrogen, which would have branched off and turned into red giants burning helium, if the cluster were older.
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@benroyce @martinvermeer At least one of them is a blue giant so yeah, it's young and it won't be long lived ...
@rozeboosje @benroyce They are all B type, but you mean component A which is B3V?
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#ScienceFiction is informed by #Science
And Science in turn stares at Science Fiction, nods, and smiles broadly
"On ‘ #StarWarsDay’, researchers more than double the number of potential known ‘circumbinary’ planets like the fictional Tatooine, home to Luke Skywalker"
A circumbinary planet is a planet that orbits two suns
More than half of all stars exist in binary star systems or star systems with even more than two stars
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/04/scientists-discover-27-potential-new-planets
@benroyce Star Wars is science fiction? I always thought it was consumerism and merchandising based on awful fantasy movies with a weak allegory of the Vietnam conflict and ripped off Authurian legend, annoying characters and bad romance writing.
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@benroyce Star Wars is science fiction? I always thought it was consumerism and merchandising based on awful fantasy movies with a weak allegory of the Vietnam conflict and ripped off Authurian legend, annoying characters and bad romance writing.
well, truthfully, it's more space opera than science fiction
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@benroyce I read an article recently that explained that such systems are inherently unstable and such planets are bound to either end up being swallowed by one of the stars or yeeted out of the system. But do you think I can find it now? Can I 'eck.... sorry
@rozeboosje @benroyce Technically our solar system is unstable, too.
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it's probably the difference between
"there's one... and there's one"
and
"holy shit, in this field of view... that's a lot"
@benroyce
Well if there are a lot of planets it's gonna put a big crimp in interstellar travel.
@johnlogic -
@rozeboosje @benroyce They are all B type, but you mean component A which is B3V?
@martinvermeer @benroyce possibly.... I lost the link where I read that
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@benroyce
Well if there are a lot of planets it's gonna put a big crimp in interstellar travel.
@johnlogicon the contrary:
if we map it well enough, think of the gravitational slingshots
we always talk about the need to go straight line and have constant thrust over huge distances (and then braking)
but what if we had amazing maps, and were able to plot courses on gravitational slingshots one after the other over huge distances?
it would require exquisite mapping, even little objects would kill
and it would require extreme computation, as all these things are moving
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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on the contrary:
if we map it well enough, think of the gravitational slingshots
we always talk about the need to go straight line and have constant thrust over huge distances (and then braking)
but what if we had amazing maps, and were able to plot courses on gravitational slingshots one after the other over huge distances?
it would require exquisite mapping, even little objects would kill
and it would require extreme computation, as all these things are moving
The computation for gravitational slingshots shouldn't be very extreme. It's straightforward, but would require a fair amount of data. Once out of a star's system, it should be easier to slingshot around stars than planets.
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The computation for gravitational slingshots shouldn't be very extreme. It's straightforward, but would require a fair amount of data. Once out of a star's system, it should be easier to slingshot around stars than planets.
That would be pretty neat if we could ping pong our way somewhere else doing that. Assuming there were enough rogue planets sitting there in the dark. Below a certain density it doesn't offer much but above a certain density it would be a goldmine. I would assume we could gain speed with each slingshot
