Planet with four suns discovered

Originally posted by luciddream
reply to post by Quantum_Squirrel

 

5000 Light yrs... ouch.

There is always more wonderful plnet combination like this but sadly, anything over 0.0001 light yr is almost impossible(even that is a bit tough, almost 39 yrs with 17000mph speed)...

Keep in mind, however, that such new discoveries invigorate innovation and development. I don't see why in the next 50 years that 5 lights years will be a mere 2 year travel of unmanned projectiles. Much is being testing today.

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by Quantum_Squirrel

Originally posted by kryton
Is there always one sun shinning?

unsure .. damn you would think so wouldn't you? pitch black springs to mind

I was thinking of the Asimov story "Nightfall" (a short story, and later a novel) about a planet with six suns that (normally) never experiences night -- i.e., there is always at least one sun in the sky.

However, one scientist finds that civilization as they know it collapses every 2000+ years, and links that collapse to the idea that every 2000+ years the planet experiences a brief "night" in which everyone goes crazy because they can't seem to grasp the concept of darkness.

en.wikipedia.org...


However, I read the novel and was less than "wowed" by it. I agree with this reviewer (below) who says that while I think the basic premise of the story is certainly interesting from a pure sci-fi standpoint, I can't help but see plot holes that come with the idea that these beings have never experienced darkness in their lives...

...for example, don't the people on this planet have windowless rooms or closets? Can't they close their eyes? Hasn't anyone on that planet ever tried hiding in a big cardboard box?

pastorjoehedden.wordpress.com...

edit on 10/15/2012 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

I just recently got hold of a copy of the novel. It elaborates a bit more into the detail of why. I'm not done reading but Asimov and Silberberg do create plausible explanation of the why. The beings, always in the light see darkness as not natural. It creates a mental condition of fear. There is mentioning of a carnival ride "the adventure" where the beings line up for. The ride is merely 15 minutes of darkness. 1 in 10 comes out insane.

Imagine 1 in 10 people become insane where the rest hangs on the brink of fear. Now include the sight of stars combined with a gloom and doom religion that foretold to date when darkness would come.

I have more trouble with the moon of Kalgash having a stable 2049 year trip around the planet in a six star system where it eclipses the one star on one of the few days that it is alone in the sky and eclipses it for halve a day so the whole planet will experience the darkness. Like clockwork. ehrm.. oke.

I have to blind myself for that stretch a bit though it gives to think where some of the niburu material is coming from. Some Niburu theories lean heavy on Asimov. (Super neutron (1941), Nightfall(1941) and Nemesis (1989)

Anyhows, the novel is worth it thus far, but that might be me being an Asimov nerd to begin with.

Originally posted by D.Wolf
Anyhows, the novel is worth it thus far, but that might be me being an Asimov nerd to begin with.

Yeah -- I can appreciate "Literary Science Fiction" for what it is, but more so in short story format. Ray Bradbury and Asimov write some great short stories back in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s that are exceptional thought-provoking stories (usually allegorical stories) even if they are lacking in the "realism" department (and I mean what is "realistic" as presented in the author's fictional world)

I can forgive a short story for being "way out there" and unrealistic, considering the allegorical nature of most of those classic science fiction short stories. However, when a story gets stretched out into a novel, I become more critical of its "realism".

i hate to be the lovecraft nut again but he def worte bout a planet that had for suns. was it the homw plkanet of the star headed olde ones???? or was that the mi-go? again he was the nuclear aged prophet. IAIAIAIAIA HPL may you rest in oblivion.

i hate to be the lovecraft nut again but HPL def worte bout a planet that had four suns. was it the home planet of the star headed olde ones???? or was that the mi-go? again he was the nuclear aged prophet. IAIAIAIAIA HPL may you rest in oblivion.

Originally posted by Upthepunx
i hate to be the lovecraft nut again but he def worte bout a planet that had for suns. was it the homw plkanet of the star headed olde ones???? or was that the mi-go? again he was the nuclear aged prophet. IAIAIAIAIA HPL may you rest in oblivion.

Science has known about multiple-sun (more than two) star systems since at least the 1800s, so it is of little surprise that science fiction authors would write about planets orbiting these multiple-star systems.

Besides Lovecraft, other examples would be Isaac Asimov who wrote a story (Nightfall) about a planet that is part of a five-star system, H.Beam Piper who wrote a story about a planet orbiting the Capella system (a four-star system), and Frank Herbert's Dune series included planets with three suns.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


yea i know this. lovecraft was very into science as were many people of times before us. that was front page news most of the time back then. just as with the moutians in the south pole with at the moutians of madness!

reply to post by Quantum_Squirrel


I agree with you, man knows very little about reality.....But we can learn if we open our minds and admit we know nothing.

reply to post by rickymouse
there is a big debate on lovecrafts use of lucid dreaming. he is the fore father of lucid dreaming and was considered a werido up untill it became recognized by the medical community

Originally posted by Upthepunx
reply to post by rickymouse

 

there is a big debate on lovecrafts use of lucid dreaming. he is the fore father of lucid dreaming and was considered a werido up untill it became recognized by the medical community

My point is that Lovecraft did not even need to use lucid dreaming to think up the idea of a planet with four suns. All he had to do was read some astronomy magazines or talk to astronomers, because science was already discussing the possibility for years. Lovecraft wasn't even the first science fiction writer to consider the possibility.

Even Jules Verne and H.G. Wells before him were very interested in writing about cutting-edge ideas that science had ALREADY considered -- even if that science was fringe-science (at the time).

wow calm down buddy.seriously

Originally posted by rickymouse
reply to post by Quantum_Squirrel

 

I agree with you, man knows very little about reality.....But we can learn if we open our minds and admit we know nothing.

Actually ricky, it would be better to say it this way:

"Humans know many things, but also have many more to discover and learn, something that will never end."

Even when we were primates swinging in the trees we knew what trees to be in, and where the food we needed was.