Since I have a cat on my lap...
Oct. 1st, 2010 10:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseSince I have a cat on my lap, I'm kind of stuck at this computer for a while. I'd dislodge her, but, you know, she's Soooooooo warm and Soooooooo snuggly, and she's making that cute little huffing sound she does when she snores.
I'm stuck, I'm afraid.
I completely geeked out yesterday over the new planet discovered inside the "goldilock's zone" (not too close, not too far) from its red dwarf sun. I love that the folks over at .io9 are already calling it Gloaming (although it's officially named Zarmina.)
For myself, I'm fascinated by the fact that Zarmina/Gloaming/Gliese 581g doesn't rotate on its axis. It's in the same kind of orbit around its sun as Mercury is to ours (or our moon is to us). In the article I read, scientists have speculated that the temperate zone would be right along this horizon/twilight line. How weird/cool is that? Plus, since it doesn't rotate, I spent a good portion of the day trying to imagine weather on this world. It's going to have one hot side, one cold side, and a line of moderate temperatures, but no spin... does that mean the weather will be static? Or will there be constant storms where the two halves meet?
Of course, I'm already starting to try to figure out any religion/spiritual concepts sentient life on Zarmina/Gloaming/Gliese 581g might have. So much of our own culture is based on the fact that we have day and night, sun and moon, and other groups of two that it would be interesting to try to figure out how someone might conceptualize a worldview where there was dark, light, and in-between. And time would be quiet meaningless, since it would ALWAYS be sunrise (or sunset) and that would only change if you moved closer or further from the horizon/twilight band.
Does anyone know if it has a moon? I suspect it can't attract one without spin, but I don't really know. Do Uranus's moons roll around it, since it's rolling head over heel in space?
You can see why I don't write a lot of space SF. Although I suppose I know just enough to be dangerous, which is, in point of fact, the perfect position to write from. I may just have to set a story here, just because I've spent far too much of my waking hours trying to imagine living there already.
I'm stuck, I'm afraid.
I completely geeked out yesterday over the new planet discovered inside the "goldilock's zone" (not too close, not too far) from its red dwarf sun. I love that the folks over at .io9 are already calling it Gloaming (although it's officially named Zarmina.)
For myself, I'm fascinated by the fact that Zarmina/Gloaming/Gliese 581g doesn't rotate on its axis. It's in the same kind of orbit around its sun as Mercury is to ours (or our moon is to us). In the article I read, scientists have speculated that the temperate zone would be right along this horizon/twilight line. How weird/cool is that? Plus, since it doesn't rotate, I spent a good portion of the day trying to imagine weather on this world. It's going to have one hot side, one cold side, and a line of moderate temperatures, but no spin... does that mean the weather will be static? Or will there be constant storms where the two halves meet?
Of course, I'm already starting to try to figure out any religion/spiritual concepts sentient life on Zarmina/Gloaming/Gliese 581g might have. So much of our own culture is based on the fact that we have day and night, sun and moon, and other groups of two that it would be interesting to try to figure out how someone might conceptualize a worldview where there was dark, light, and in-between. And time would be quiet meaningless, since it would ALWAYS be sunrise (or sunset) and that would only change if you moved closer or further from the horizon/twilight band.
Does anyone know if it has a moon? I suspect it can't attract one without spin, but I don't really know. Do Uranus's moons roll around it, since it's rolling head over heel in space?
You can see why I don't write a lot of space SF. Although I suppose I know just enough to be dangerous, which is, in point of fact, the perfect position to write from. I may just have to set a story here, just because I've spent far too much of my waking hours trying to imagine living there already.
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-01 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-02 08:29 am (UTC)I'm confused by what you mean here. Do you mean that Mercury is tidally locked? Because it isn't.
What I found especially interesting about Gliese 581g is that its year is only 36.6 days. If its orbital eccentricity is high enough, that could conceivably make up for tidal locking to produce an analog to seasons. Except they'd only be a week long or so (if there were three per orbital period).
no subject
Date: 2010-10-05 06:45 pm (UTC)See.
I don't even know crap about my own solar system.
Cool about Gliese's week-long seasons. I'd totally have to write that into a story.
one-face worlds
Date: 2010-10-04 11:36 pm (UTC)Frank
Gloaming prefigured in 2005
Date: 2010-10-10 09:58 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNeTxPgGJ7I
m.