Traveller's notes. Part 4. The Shinies
24 Nov 2018Shnyrik
I am now landed on the nameless moon A 2 a in the Amundsen's Star system (Lyed YJ-I d9-0). Unfortunately I had to strip off atmospheric shielding to maximize jump range, so this was the only available place for me to stretch legs. I've spend the whole day trying to patch up the hull of my DBX, but there's got to be some leak from the reactor, so detectors show, that the hull is still degrading slowly. However it's current condition is not that bad, so I still have pretty much chances to make it to the Crab Nebula.
FTL communications work rather slow and strange here, so by the time this log uploads to server I will probably be sitting in a cafe at Station X.
Last time I wrote about the Monoceros Passage. I've flown a fairly long distance since then.
There was a waypoint named "Shinies" in my plan. This were two close points of interest, reported by commanders Macros Black and Han Zulu. One of them was a ringed ammonia world, the other -- the famous Red vs Blue system with a postcard view on a close pair of differently colored stars.
But on my way right near the Monoceros Passage I've met another ringed ammonia world (Eorm Aip EU-Z C13-0 A 6) slightly larger and colder than the famous Ice on Fire. Were our insectoid "friends" as interested in deep space colonization as we are, they would have definitely liked the view
If you believe that Ice on Fire is a bit too far away, this planet looks almost as awesome
Nice stellar trio in system Dryau Aed LV-L C21-0.
Another interesting system I've run into is Eowyg Aewsy EY-H C23-2. There is a load of terraformable planets on close orbit around a large L-class brown dwarf there. Commanders from the Operation "Brown Dwarf" would definitely like it
This is by the way the first pair of planets:
After about a week of fuel scooping I've finally arrived at the Red vs Blue system (Eowyg Aewsy AL-P E5-0).
You've all seen those awesome postcards from there. And naturally I just couldn't help making another one. By the way, notice how gravity deforms both stars:
But there is an obvious thing I should tell: anyone familiar with space travel should at least in some approximation understand how star works. Basically it is a sphere of gas held together by its own gravity, while the radiation from the nuclear reactions inside it's core holds the balance and prevents it from collapsing.
Mass is the main factor that in the end determines all other characteristics, including diameter, temperature and thus color and the whole evolution of the star. So if there is a close pair of stars, that formed together and are of the same age, to be colored differently they just have to have different mass and thus diameter, luminosity and temperature.
So if you see a picture of close pair of stars that are approximately of the same size but are colored differently, there's got to be something special there
And the obvious assumption would be that the red star is smaller (something like a red dwarf) and those photos are just a play with perspective. And that has something to do with the reality, because the system when you enter it currently looks like that
And yes, to make the previous photo I've also had to cheat with the perspective
But if you look at the masses, you'll suddenly see that this obvious assumption was not right: the red component is actually a bit heavier than the blue one, it is about 5 stellar masses while the blue one is only about 4.
So it is not at all a red dwarf. But why is it colder?
Well, yeah, the answer has actually all that time been in the title: the red star is Herbig Ae/Be class. But who cares about the class unless it is KGB FOAM, right?
By the way, one of my former classmates in Achenar's His Royal Majesty Emperor Hengist Duval's Cadet Corps, who now works in the linguistic institute, told me, that the etymology of this acronym goes back about 1000 years and is somehow supposed to be connected to the name of some ancient terran secret service. Very strange association for stellar classes, I should mention.But back to the stars. The thing is that both stars are very-very young. The blue one is already a young main sequence B star, while the red star is still a compact proto-star, that have not yet started nuclear reactions and shines only due to heat released during gravitational compression. Thai is why it currently looks colder.
But it won't last long, and as soon as the red's core starts it's nuclear burning, the star will ignite as another white-blue B-class. So hurry up, we have only a few thousands of years left to enjoy the view
The next stop was Ice on Fire (Wimly LN-B d0). I can say, that in the Outer Arm Vacuus one can easily navigate in an engineered long range ship. But only while one stays within a tube-like area of relatively dense stars. A few hundreds of light years to the side and navigational problems appear.
Ice on Fire is very close to the Red vs Blue, but slightly upper and thus not at all easy to get to. Stock up on jumponium
As you can see, the ringed ammonia world looks very nice:
And it actually has advantage over the one, I've discovered earlier: it has a little nice pink-colored moon
Due to the mentioned navigational problems I had to fly back to the Red vs Blue and then back to Spliem LH-U b16-0 also known as Halfway To Anywhere
Then I headed south and met two more pairs of twins:
Aidompt XP-G d10-6. As you can see, one of the stars is slightly bigger and thus shines blue-white, while the other is yellow-white.
But still, they are of almost the same size so look nice from almost any direction
And another pair is at Leech UI-K d8-0.
They are accompanied by a close pair of red dwarfs, that makes the whole stellar carousel look even nicer:
Another notable body at Lyed QI-B d13-1 was a ringed water world on close orbit around a Y-class brown dwarf with large ring system. Here you can see it's ringed sun on the background:
And finally I've reached my destination: Amundsen's star (Lyed YJ-I d9-0) the southernmost point of the Galaxy. The system, where you can enjoy the view of the whole Galaxy through one window and at the same time the view (or rather its absence) of the intergalactic void through the opposite.
