| General > General Technical Chat |
| Betelgeuse the star |
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| thinkfat:
Sounds like a good plan. |
| Nominal Animal:
--- Quote from: rdl on January 28, 2020, 11:08:52 pm ---Now you guys have done it. I'm gonna have to drag all my old Niven books out of storage and read 'em again. --- End quote --- Draco Tavern short stories are my favourite, followed by Moties series (The Mote in God's Eye, King David's Spaceship, The Gripping Hand, and Outes). |
| David Hess:
--- Quote from: imo on January 27, 2020, 12:10:54 pm ---It would be great if it explodes next weeks. I always wanted to see exploding supernova.. 8) --- End quote --- I was reading up on red giant stellar evolution and it should do a lot more than dim before it goes supernova. --- Quote from: thinkfat on January 28, 2020, 09:20:04 pm ---I seem to remember that in "Ringworld: Engineers" it was found that the Ringworld was unstable because natives stupidly dismantled the attitude jets on the rim walls, throwing the Protectors into a frenzy to save the remaining inhabitants. --- End quote --- I do not think it was ever made clear why the resident goul protector, Cronus, allowed the City Builders to steal the rimwall attitude jets. I assume it was Cronus because Halrloprillalar said she was not familiar with Fist of God which was formed soon after Cronus was killed by the vampire Protectors Bran and Anne. So Prill's people were stealing the attitude jets before that point. Bran and Anne did not fix the situation even when the Ringworld started sliding off center but since they were non-sentient as breeders, they were not the brightest of Protectors although apparently bright enough not to be trapped or killed by Teela Brown who suspected or knew at least of Bran's existence in the Repair Center. |
| Alex Eisenhut:
--- Quote from: rdl on January 28, 2020, 11:08:52 pm ---Now you guys have done it. I'm gonna have to drag all my old Niven books out of storage and read 'em again. --- End quote --- You know, I find A Gift From Earth enjoyable. World of Ptaavs is also a nice one. My favorite stand-alonish novel is Protector. I like his early stuff. Quick, fun, to the point, done. |
| Rick Law:
Don't worry about Betelgeuse. With just 60 Starlink satellites launched, they are already causing huge problems for astronomers. When SpaceX finish lauching 30,000 Starlink satellites, whether Betelgeuse is there or not, you will hardly ever see it or any other stars again. For some reason, their construction made the satellites very reflective, so it is leaving huge light streaks (on photos) as they travel. Their brightness is over-powering bright stars let alone dimmer ones. The problem was identified after the first couple of launches (reference 3), yet by now there are about 60 up there with the same problem... Attached is a photo (from reference#1) of how these damn satellite-streak looks with mere 60 sats. Multiply that by 500 (for 30,000 satellites), you can see and how disruptive they are to the view of the sky even for mere star watchers let alone astronomers. Reference: 1. KXAN (Austin, TX) NBC News: What was that streak of light across the night sky? (source of the attached photo) https://www.kxan.com/weather/weather-blog/what-was-that-streak-of-light-across-the-night-sky/ 2. Space Flight Now: Documents suggest SpaceX may launch 30,000 more Starlink satellites https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/10/15/documents-suggest-spacex-may-launch-30000-more-starlink-satellites/ 3. Phy.Org: Astronomers say SpaceX's satellites are too bright in the sky. Friday's launch will try to fix that https://phys.org/news/2020-01-astronomers-spacex-satellites-bright-sky.html |
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