Questions tagged [stars]
For questions about luminous spheres of plasma held together by their own gravity, generally comprised primarily of hydrogen and helium.
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Use bomb to detonate a white dwarf?
Suppose there is a Sirius A based alien civilization, but their planet is heavily defended, so direct attack is useless. Could we use some kind of weapon to detonate the Sirius B and cause a disaster ...
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5answers
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How can this habitable planet have a moon with a naturally occurring atmosphere?
Assuming the planet is earth-like, with more surface water and atmospheric oxygen, and within the habitable zone of a sun-like star, how can a moon orbiting this planet retain a thick atmosphere?
The ...
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1answer
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Effects of Red Dwarf CME (Flare) on Biological Life and Atmosphere
I have a planet circling an M-Class star (M3/M4). I'm trying to figure out what the effects of flaring on the planet's biosphere might be.
Background: As some of you may know, M-class stars are ...
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vote
1answer
104 views
Longest possible eclipse in double star system
I have a planetary system that consists of two close stars:
A Sun-like star - small but bright
A much larger, but much darker star (about 5-10 times larger)
A habitable planet orbiting both of the ...
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3answers
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What is the Habitable Zone of a Red Dwarf star?
This question is pretty straightforward:
What is the minimum and maximum distance for a planet to be in the habitable zone of an average sized (not biggest, not smallest) Red Dwarf star?
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5answers
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Distance between star systems
I'm writing a story that will eventually escalate from being focused on one planet to the entire star system that planet belongs to, and finally to a big story involving the two nearest star systems ...
6
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2answers
193 views
Planet Orbiting a Red Dwarf
I'm trying to create my planet orbiting a red dwarf, honestly I've thought other scenarios but it's like every answer opens new questions. I'll just say what I want my planet to be and I'd like your ...
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votes
2answers
173 views
Can I arrange my stars in a tetrahedron?
Inspired by this question:
Consider a trinary star system, in which the three stars are arranged in an xy plane and all revolving the same direction, equidistant from each other. The inward pull of ...
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1answer
115 views
Explaining a Low-Mass Brown Dwarf
Considering the well-established relationships between stellar mass, surface temp, and luminosity, how unusual would it be to find a star (or brown dwarf) that possesses about half the mass of an ...
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7answers
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Is a solar system around a black hole possible?
Is it possible for there to be a "solar system" of sorts with a black hole and a few suns orbiting around it?
Could that system be stable and (if so) would it be possible for some civilization(s) to ...
6
votes
1answer
153 views
How close from Earth could a wandering flare red dwarf star be without causing havoc?
Rewriting the question to clarify:
The time and location is now in our current Earth. A wandering red dwarf flare star (like Wolf 359) is moving towards our Solar System.
The question: How close could ...
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votes
4answers
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Purple plants on a planet orbiting a green star?
Before I continue, yes, green stars don't really exist visually. Although stars like the Sun are green stars, they appear white (and are known as yellow dwarfs) because it doesn't only emit green ...
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2answers
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What is the minimum size for the Sun?
How small could our Sun be and still "burn" with nuclear fusion and emit the same spectrum of light and other radiation as the real Sun does?
Edit:
The goal is to have a small sun inside a huge ...
6
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3answers
159 views
How to navigate a ringed planet at night?
I'm working on a story set in an Earth-like world but with rings (say, proportionately similar to Saturn's). I'm trying to get a solid handle on how these rings would affect the sky. For the ...
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votes
1answer
103 views
Could this moon of a gas giant orbiting a neutron star support life?
Making the following assumptions:
1. The three moons of the Gas Giant are safe enough distances from and massive enough not to pull each other apart or send themselves careening into the void.
2. ...
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votes
6answers
683 views
Can a collision with a neutron star make a planet via the can-o-snakes method?
Simplistically, a neutron star is a celestial body with enormous mass crushed into a small volume. That crushing force is gravity and the result, one might think, is atoms packed much more closely ...
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14answers
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How do you non-catastrophically reduce the mass of the Sun by half?
In my previous question, I asked how much mass the Sun would have to lose in order for Saturn's orbital velocity to be its escape velocity.
The answer proved to be somewhat unexpected - when the Sun ...
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votes
4answers
210 views
How would an advanced alien race go about preventing their sun from dying?
I'm currently designing an advanced alien race that has found a way to prevent its host star from dying. But I'm not sure how exactly would that happen.
So my question is, "How could you prevent the ...
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2answers
262 views
Would it be possible to create an artificial iron star?
I ran a quick calculation, and the mass of iron required to form a black hole is on the order of 10^40kg. So, suppose that in my story there is this almost much iron available to somehow be brought ...
10
votes
1answer
127 views
Increased Luminosity in Stars
I'm trying to construct a solar system, and I'm toying with the idea that the planet capable of sustaining life was initially outside of the habitable zone, but the star's advanced age has caused the ...
4
votes
1answer
185 views
Would this simplex ternary system be stable?
I'm trying to make a trinary star system but I'm not sure how it would work. The primary star is an M0Ve star (red dwarf flare star). The orbits of the other two stars are slightly more complicated. ...
18
votes
6answers
448 views
Can my spaceship figure out its position using Cepheid Variables?
In my story, reasonably far in the future, an intrepid group of explorers are on the first manned mission to the Andromeda galaxy, travelling close to the speed of light. They slumbered in suspended ...
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1answer
262 views
A self-eclipsing orbital ring
A common, matter-efficient science-fiction habitat is a hollow cylinder or ring in space that is spun to simulate the pull of gravity on its interior surface. These habitats have been imagined as ...
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3answers
337 views
How can the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram be used in star building?
As you can probably guess from the title, I have some questions about the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, especially how to use it to make plausible stars.
Some questions:
Can stars exist in the black ...
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5answers
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How can I make a black dwarf star?
In response to a question about an asteroid filled with degenerate matter, Ender Look suggested that using matter from a black dwarf would be better than using matter from a white dwarf since black ...
4
votes
1answer
94 views
Visibility of second star in S-type system
So in my world there is a planet orbiting a star, which is in a far binary system with another star. Is there any formula to calculate when the distant star would be visible - times of year and/or day?...
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votes
2answers
238 views
Dozens of Habitable Worlds in One System?
I want to know if this is physically possible. So at first I thought I was nuts. Then I started reading about Hill Radii, and googled left and right. Turns out a Hill Sphere is the region around an ...
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votes
3answers
465 views
How to estimate a star's heliopause?
Is it possible to calculate/estimate the size of a star's heliosphere? If so, how?
I am working on a semi-near future, sci-fi novel. As part of the technology base, humans are able to travel between ...
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votes
2answers
290 views
How many habitable planets can I fit into the habitable zone of a Sun-like star and still be stable? [duplicate]
The habitable planets will be very similar in size to earth and are on separate orbits orbiting a Sun-like star exactly the size of our own Sun. How many habitable planets can I fit into the habitable ...
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votes
4answers
62 views
Optimal arrangement for habitable zones?
So, here's my issue.
My setting's central conceit is that a myriad of human societies developed at relatively concurrent times across a large system separated by only a few light-hours. (There are, of ...
15
votes
3answers
528 views
Could the Sun be born again?
About 5 billion years from now, the Sun will begin to swell into a red giant. This will cause some problems, because life on a planet orbiting a red giant is hard. Even if Earth isn't engulfed by the ...
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votes
3answers
1k views
Can two stars orbit each other but each have their own planets in stable orbits?
I'm aware that 'tatooine' worlds don't make good habits for planets, normally. From what I've read, either a planet has to orbit one star really closely, or orbit both stars from a really long ...
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5answers
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How to make an Earth with 27 suns work [duplicate]
Viability of Many Suns
This is the first of a thread of related posts on a hypothetical alternate universe/Light Plane.
Other posts from this thread are here:
How To Make an Earth with 27 Suns Work,...
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1answer
103 views
A K-Type Binary Dawn/Dusk in the Equator
In this alternate scenario, Earth is the third planet in a binary star system. One star is a K-type main sequence star--or "orange dwarf"--that has 80% the mass of a G-type main sequence star--or "...
15
votes
1answer
288 views
Would it be possible to farm the energy from pulsars?
From what I can tell, pulsars emit light in beams from the poles of the pulsar. Would it be possible to construct something to get energy from a pulsar's beams of radiation? Or is this as idiotic of ...
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vote
1answer
254 views
Earth Orbits a K-Type Star. What Would the Visual Scenery Look Like?
To clarify on the title, K-type main-sequence stars--shortened as "orange dwarves"--are subjects of excitement for astronomers and astrobiologists.
Why?
They emit enough radiation to provide a ...
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votes
1answer
204 views
Is a supernova powerful to destroy the other star in a binary system?
So, you have the big bad race, whose extermination method is basically to force stars to go supercritical via the power of handwavium. You can assume 1 solar mass for each, but you can change it if ...
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votes
3answers
156 views
Life in the water/snow line of a protoplanetary accretion disc?
So I was reading this article recently, titled Stellar Outburst Brings Water Snow Line into View: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1626. In short it's about a protoplanetary accretion disc around a ...
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votes
1answer
121 views
Can I see my secondary star?
I have a binary star system and have come up with some stats for it.
My primary star is an F-type, with a mass of 1.3 sols and a luminosity of 2.197 sols. My secondary star is a K-type, with a mass ...
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4answers
304 views
Star system that isn't the Sun: words for “sunlight”
Language revolving around the Sun would probably not be used on a planet with a different star, right? For example, if a planet was orbiting Sirius, "siriuslight" or "siriusburn" seems a tad clunky, ...
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votes
2answers
127 views
Can a fission satellite duplicate the radiance frequencies of a star?
I sometimes think about the arrogant dwarf starsmiths in the question.
How to blow up a star by accident?
I pose the question in the voice of the dwarf, probably because I am hungry for down votes.
...
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votes
4answers
236 views
References to evil star myths?
I'm in a D&D campaign where astronomy plays a big deal. I want to name drop and reference some good astrology myths about evil or cursed stars, but I'm having an awful time finding anything. The ...
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2answers
235 views
A new approach on multi-star solar system [closed]
The most common concepts of multi-star systems, it seems to me, are either unrealistic / impossible OR do not have the "feeling" of a multi-star system commonly depicted in films etc., i.e. multiple ...
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votes
2answers
202 views
Habitable planet in a multistar system
I'm trying to design a world in the Alcyone A system of the Pleiades.
Alcyone A consists of three stars. The main star is 3.4-3.8 solar masses.
There is a very low mass star < 15 million miles ...
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votes
9answers
778 views
How to destroy a star system?
The admiral of a space fleet that belongs to a Type 3 civilization has been given orders to obliterate all planets within the habitable zone of a Sun like star.
Some of the planets have been ...
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votes
2answers
496 views
What would happen if 10^37 J of energy was dumped into the sun via antimatter detonation?
My first post here, and it's more about destroying worlds than making them.
Consider this scenario:
An earthlike planet where a powerful magic spell has been cast, protecting all positrons from ...
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votes
1answer
172 views
How would a colliding binary affect its planetary system?
The scenario is based on the fact that a tight binary of two neutron stars does not hold for long: The two bodies lose energy in the form of gravitational waves and they spiral towards each other and ...
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2answers
258 views
What could be done to make a red dwarf become a blue dwarf, then a white dwarf and then finally a black dwarf in a short amount of time?
My civilization is highly advanced Type III and wants to conduct an experiment on a red dwarf. They want to artificially cause it to become a blue dwarf, then a white dwarf and then finally a black ...
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votes
3answers
477 views
Could I make this dark and eerie world possible?
The inspiration came from the music in the title sequence of the film Alien. The idea is a planet that humans have colonized where it's almost always drizzling slightly. It's always dark but there is ...
6
votes
1answer
191 views
Is the temperature on my planet affected whenever my binary stars are aligned?
Here I began exploring appearances of binary stars when standing on a planet. The planet orbits both stars.
I've established through the help of this community that there are times that the two ...
