Star Group / Cluster jumps

[kenwshmt]

What is the minimum distance that jumps work at, and what makes one system into 2 systems?

the Alpha Centauri system is as good an example as any.

Alpha and Beta are about as far apart as Sol and the orbit of Saturn, both may have planets, and a nice Legrange point in the middle.

proxima, #3, is .25 light years away.

3 is clearly at jump distance, but its very very close for a jump drive, and 1 and 2 are in a system themselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri


How does this work for globular clusters?
Something like the pleides with at least 1000 stars in only 8 ly radius.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades

Or the Orion nebula, which is another mess.


Where do the edges form?

 

[Memnoch]

Interesting question. At a guess I would say that binary and up systems would be considered one system and a method of interplanetary travel would be used. Everything else would be considered interstellar travel.

 

[Cmdr Sharky]

Indeed, interesting. I'd say something like 0.01 LY. That's nearly 1000 AU and so is considerably larger than the interesting part of the solar system. The Oort Cloud is a lot bigger but it's too big to be interesting.

0.25 LY (Alpha to Proxima) is too far to fly between, so I'd say that that has to be a hyperspace jump to a different system. Globular clusters should just be a bunch of star systems close together.

 

[Jokester]

Systems tend to be any group of bodies gravitationally bound to each other. Whether or not Proxima Centauri is actually orbiting Alpha/Beta Centauri I'm not sure.