Community Event / Creation FREE science consultation for fiction authors :)

[Dr Wookie]

Hi guys,
as some of you know, I am a professional astrophysicist. I am at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, one of the top institutions in the world, and am paid by NASA to hunt for black holes.

My specialist subject is accreting binary systems (my somewhat dry academic home page is here. However, I know leading experts in many different areas of space research, e.g. star formation, exoplanets etc., and in any case can access the latest journal papers.

If any of the authors of E: D fiction have any science based questions, or things that they are unsure of, then I would be happy to help .

I had the idea of starting this thread after reading a post in the Anthology forum that was a great idea, but tremendously unlikely in practice. However,
I don't intend to rain on anyone's creativity parade!

 

[psykokow]

well what an offer, nice to meet you sir.
I really look forward to seeing this thread develop..
I might even pretend to know what the heck you're talking about

 

[SAB380]

I am paid by NASA to hunt for black holes.

hmmm
May as well shut down this forum now. Nothing cooler than that will ever be posted here

 

[DigitalDuck]

Hi guys,
I am at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, one of the top institutions in the world, and am paid by NASA to hunt for black holes.

When you say, "hunt for black holes"...

I imagine a herd of black holes, standing in a field, grazing. Suddenly, unannounced to them, a crazed scientist starts shooting at them. This scientist is hunting, and it's black hole hunting season. He wants to take home a black hole and have its head stuffed and put on display in his living room.

I bet it's probably not like that at all.

 

[Thargoid]

Lovely offer Dr Wookie. I like to think I'm pretty up there with that kind of thing but having an expert confirm (or deny) that would be fantastic. I'm sure I'll be using you at some point. In fact I have a short story (not elite) about two black holes and the visual effects they produce. Do your consults have to be Elite based?

Thanks

John

 

[Michael Brookes]

When you say, "hunt for black holes"...

I imagine a herd of black holes, standing in a field, grazing. Suddenly, unannounced to them, a crazed scientist starts shooting at them. This scientist is hunting, and it's black hole hunting season. He wants to take home a black hole and have its head stuffed and put on display in his living room.

I bet it's probably not like that at all.

You misheard him, he said "Black Voles"

Michael

 

[Darren Grey]

Ooh, I have a question right up your street then - is it feasible to have an accreting binary system with settled planets or stations? Just considering the potential radiation hazards, the worries of regular novas (even is "regular" is on the astronomical scale), and the chance of habitable planets or moons in such a system.

 

[Dr Wookie]

hmmm
May as well shut down this forum now. Nothing cooler than that will ever be posted here

How about "Elite Dangerous is launching in one hour- see you in space commanders!"

You misheard him, he said "Black Voles"

Michael

Oh no, busted! I'm really a groundskeeper !

Ooh, I have a question right up your street then - is it feasible to have an accreting binary system with settled planets or stations? Just considering the potential radiation hazards, the worries of regular novas (even is "regular" is on the astronomical scale), and the chance of habitable planets or moons in such a system.

Short answer: no, sorry .

If the accreting star is a neutron star or black hole, then it needs a supernova to form; no way for a planet to survive that. In any case, the X-ray radiation would be incredibly dangerous, at levels about 1 billion to 1000 billion times (a proper billion) higher than the Sun.

Even if the accreting star is a white dwarf, it has to go through a nasty adolescence where the red giant phase expands to envelop the other star, spewing out horribleness while the binary shrinks down to the size needed for accretion.

Any planet that survives that would have to be very far from the star system, meaning that they would get hardly any energy from the stars. You could maybe have a skeleton crew or robotic system for exploration or mining, but that's it.

 

[Mobius]

How about "Elite Dangerous is launching in one hour- see you in space commanders!"


Oh no, busted! I'm really a groundskeeper !


Short answer: no, sorry .

If the accreting star is a neutron star or black hole, then it needs a supernova to form; no way for a planet to survive that. In any case, the X-ray radiation would be incredibly dangerous, at levels about 1 billion to 1000 billion times (a proper billion) higher than the Sun.

Even if the accreting star is a white dwarf, it has to go through a nasty adolescence where the red giant phase expands to envelop the other star, spewing out horribleness while the binary shrinks down to the size needed for accretion.

Any planet that survives that would have to be very far from the star system, meaning that they would get hardly any energy from the stars. You could maybe have a skeleton crew or robotic system for exploration or mining, but that's it.

this is why i dont like realism in games, it ruins everything,

also is it true that up until 1969 man couldnt disprove that the moon was made from cheese.

 

[Darren Grey]

Short answer: no, sorry .

Hah, thought so - oh well.

So to throw more ice on the party, just how feasible are hyperdrives?

 

[Ian Phillips]

hmmm
May as well shut down this forum now. Nothing cooler than that will ever be posted here

This was prettty cool:

What do you do?
I design spaceships.

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

Hunting for black holes at Nasa? try the accounts department, you'll find several

cool offer though, you certainly help firm up some details for my little bit of fan fiction, I'm sure your knowledge will prove useful.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

In any case, the X-ray radiation would be incredibly dangerous, at levels about 1 billion to 1000 billion times (a proper billion) higher than the Sun. [...] You could maybe have a skeleton crew or robotic system for exploration or mining, but that's it.

Put X-Rays and skeleton crew together into a post, and my brain immediately goes into Ray Harryhausen mode.

 

[Selezen]

OK, then, Dr Wookie, here's a question. Is the following possible:

Binary system of DA1 white dwarf and K1V orange dwarf orbiting each other at a distance of about 0.35 AU with a co-orbital period of about 3.5 Earth days.

Single planet in that system with a breathable atmosphere, orbiting the binary pair. According to astronomy websites (and a summary from Wikipedia) there should be a habitable zone (based on temperature and radiation output) at about 0.61AU.

 

[Darren Grey]

You just repeated my question, Selezen

 

[Selezen]

No I didn't - my binary system isn't accretive.

Obviously I'm not sure, hence the question.

 

[Darren Grey]

Oh, silly me - I guess I just associated with it since I had a white dwarf and orange/red star in mind when considering my accretion question.

 

[Dr Wookie]

So to throw more ice on the party, just how feasible are hyperdrives?

That's the thing- future tech could make it happen, so why not ? I'm more concerned about being consistent with stuff that we already know.

this is why i dont like realism in games, it ruins everything

See I don't agree. You can have exotic binaries, and you can have star systems teeming with life... just not in the same space. That's what hyperdrives are for

also is it true that up until 1969 man couldnt disprove that the moon was made from cheese.

True ! Although unlikely, it was necessary to go to the moon to disprove it.
Fun fact: when the Huygens team landed on Titan (one of Saturn's moon)- the stuff it landed on was best described as creme brulee !

Binary system of DA1 white dwarf and K1V orange dwarf orbiting each other at a distance of about 0.35 AU with a co-orbital period of about 3.5 Earth days.

Single planet in that system with a breathable atmosphere, orbiting the binary pair. According to astronomy websites (and a summary from Wikipedia) there should be a habitable zone (based on temperature and radiation output) at about 0.61AU.

Again I would be worried by the white dwarf, although the problem would be much less severe than for Darren's system. The problem is that any planet within the habitable zone of the star prior to the white dwarf phase is likely to be stripped of an atmosphere during the red giant phase.

However, the white dwarrf was formed sufficiently long ago, and there were a sufficient number of cometary bombardments, then you could get a new atmosphere. Furthermore, the planet could have been further out before white dwarf, and drawn into the habitable zone.

So I say, yes it's possible. The probability is low, but there are 100 billion stars, so there could be at least one star system like that

 

[Selezen]

Again I would be worried by the white dwarf, although the problem would be much less severe than for Darren's system. The problem is that any planet within the habitable zone of the star prior to the white dwarf phase is likely to be stripped of an atmosphere during the red giant phase.

However, the white dwarrf was formed sufficiently long ago, and there were a sufficient number of cometary bombardments, then you could get a new atmosphere. Furthermore, the planet could have been further out before white dwarf, and drawn into the habitable zone.

So I say, yes it's possible. The probability is low, but there are 100 billion stars, so there could be at least one star system like that

Awesome - the concept I have in mind has an extensive asteroid belt outside the habitable zone so cometary activity would be likely and thus fits right in with the science with some wiggle room. The probability level is acceptable for my needs, so thanks for the confirmation that my science is more or less right....

 

[Kerrash]

Hey there Dr Wookie.

I just wondered what your thoughts are on the proposed 'dark systems' in E: D, mainly in relation to how you could keep a sustainable place to visit there?

Assuming you have a rogue planet on which to set-up a hidden station, given the absence of light, what power sources would make sense? Radio-isotopes?