Information I'd love to know

cthia wrote:Yes, I have wondered about that Amaroq. Quite a bit. It seems impossible not to wonder and daydream when one sees incredibly imagined pics of skyscapes dominated by twin suns or even moons. It's beautiful, most renditions, and a bit eerie, possible even alien and frightening to some.

Edit:
I'd personally like to experience something remarkable as such.

For some reason, I always attribute my own incredibly beautiful aurora borealis to accompany such a phenomena.

Play Skyrim. You get a pair of moons *and* an aurora every night it isn't raining (or snowing). Check out the variety of pics here: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sit ... CE65nsJe3s

MaxxQ wrote:

cthia wrote:Yes, I have wondered about that Amaroq. Quite a bit. It seems impossible not to wonder and daydream when one sees incredibly imagined pics of skyscapes dominated by twin suns or even moons. It's beautiful, most renditions, and a bit eerie, possible even alien and frightening to some.

Edit:
I'd personally like to experience something remarkable as such.

For some reason, I always attribute my own incredibly beautiful aurora borealis to accompany such a phenomena.

Play Skyrim. You get a pair of moons *and* an aurora every night it isn't raining (or snowing). Check out the variety of pics here: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sit ... CE65nsJe3s

Thanks Maxx. Those are very nice pics. I don't know why I always imagined incredible aurora borealis'. Perhaps subconciously I make the connection of two suns, intense and frequent borealis. Good to see I am not alone.

cthia wrote:

Amaroq wrote:Anyone else ever wondered what living on a planet in a binary system would be like? Manticore is a binary system but you never hear much mentioned about double suns and how that would affect daily life.

There are 10 types of people that understand binary.
Those that do, and those that don't.

All I need to know about binary I learned on a TI-36X info card. 3rd shift key [BIN]

Amaroq wrote:Are you an astronomer, SWM?

Yes, I was a planetary scientist. Currently I am employed as a librarian.

From the wonders of one cosmos to the wonders of the multitudes of universes.

SWM wrote:

Amaroq wrote:Are you an astronomer, SWM?

Yes, I was a planetary scientist. Currently I am employed as a librarian.

Why didn't Horace just join the Marines instead?

cthia wrote:

Amaroq wrote:Anyone else ever wondered what living on a planet in a binary system would be like? Manticore is a binary system but you never hear much mentioned about double suns and how that would affect daily life.

Yes, I have wondered about that Amaroq. Quite a bit. It seems impossible not to wonder and daydream when one sees incredibly imagined pics of skyscapes dominated by twin suns or even moons. It's beautiful, most renditions, and a bit eerie, possible even alien and frightening to some.

Edit:
I'd personally like to experience something remarkable as such.

For some reason, I always attribute my own incredibly beautiful aurora borealis to accompany such a phenomena.

There's apparently a limit as to how close a planet could be to a double star system and remain dynamically stable. I have no idea what it is, or whether it's far enough away to rule out habitable planets. Maybe one of the actual astronomers on the forum could weigh in on the question?

Amaroq wrote:
Anyone else ever wondered what living on a planet in a binary system would be like? Manticore is a binary system but you never hear much mentioned about double suns and how that would affect daily life.

Cthia wrote:
Yes, I have wondered about that Amaroq. Quite a bit. It seems impossible not to wonder and daydream when one sees incredibly imagined pics of skyscapes dominated by twin suns or even moons. It's beautiful, most renditions, and a bit eerie, possible even alien and frightening to some.

Edit:
I'd personally like to experience something remarkable as such.

For some reason, I always attribute my own incredibly beautiful aurora borealis to accompany such a phenomena.

JohnRoth wrote:
There's apparently a limit as to how close a planet could be to a double star system and remain dynamically stable. I have no idea what it is, or whether it's far enough away to rule out habitable planets. Maybe one of the actual astronomers on the forum could weigh in on the question?

I always wondered about that too John. But as I've often said, when I come across apparent iffi-science I make up my own solutions. The only thing I can think of therein are unusually close moons (as far as twin moons) that lack denseness, or core metals. Beats the hell out of me how to explain twin suns. Because even if a planet has some special core properties produced by a rare combination of rare metals producing a counter effect, how the heck does the twin suns not destroy each other?

JohnRoth wrote:There's apparently a limit as to how close a planet could be to a double star system and remain dynamically stable. I have no idea what it is, or whether it's far enough away to rule out habitable planets. Maybe one of the actual astronomers on the forum could weigh in on the question?

It depends on how bright the stars are and how far apart they are. The brightness will determine how far the habitable zone is from the stars. Off the top of my head, the instability produced by a close binary pair of stars is a third or fourth order effect (I'd have to look it up). Given binary star, with components A and B, there will be relatively stable orbits around A, around B, and around the center of mass of A plus B. (The fanciful figure 8 orbit looping between both is unstable, I believe.) If the stars are far enough apart, the habitable zone of A will encompass at least some of the stable orbits; similarly the habitable zone of B could encompass stable orbits if they are far enough apart. And if the stars are close enough and/or bright enough, the habitable zone will include at least some of the stable orbits around their center of mass. Contact binaries, in particular, could easily have stable orbits in the habitable zone. (Contact binaries are so close that the star surfaces are close enough to exchange mass.)

SWM wrote:

JohnRoth wrote:There's apparently a limit as to how close a planet could be to a double star system and remain dynamically stable. I have no idea what it is, or whether it's far enough away to rule out habitable planets. Maybe one of the actual astronomers on the forum could weigh in on the question?

It depends on how bright the stars are and how far apart they are. The brightness will determine how far the habitable zone is from the stars. Off the top of my head, the instability produced by a close binary pair of stars is a third or fourth order effect (I'd have to look it up). Given binary star, with components A and B, there will be relatively stable orbits around A, around B, and around the center of mass of A plus B. (The fanciful figure 8 orbit looping between both is unstable, I believe.) If the stars are far enough apart, the habitable zone of A will encompass at least some of the stable orbits; similarly the habitable zone of B could encompass stable orbits if they are far enough apart. And if the stars are close enough and/or bright enough, the habitable zone will include at least some of the stable orbits around their center of mass. Contact binaries, in particular, could easily have stable orbits in the habitable zone. (Contact binaries are so close that the star surfaces are close enough to exchange mass.)

Didn't know that the figure eight orbits were unstable. Thanks for the info. However, intuitively, it did seem that such an orbit would be too...fragile? And that the slightest disaster would destroy the balance of the entire system. I wonder about asteroids and comets in a binary system. Seems there'd be many more near misses....and hits! And what would the effect of such a system have on solar flares? Anyway, although it seems to be a quite beautiful system, intuitively seems to be fraught with dangers as well, although I couldn't rule out that feeling of anxiety brought on by...the alien aspect of it.