Groombridge 34: Summoning Geek Superheroes

[Ralph Rotten]

Summary: Summoning all geek superheroes with knowledge of the Groombridge 34 star system.

Allow me to introduce myself: I am an author from Tucson, Arizona.
I am currently researching for my next novel that revolves around the Groombridge34 star system (binary red dwarfs orbiting at 147AU from each other.)

The beings in this story live on a moonmoon that orbits a rocky giant that orbits the larger of the 2 stars. A large (5x) planet has been confirmed at this location, but for gravitational purposes I decided to have them evolve on the moonmoon, just because I like saying moonmoon.

I bet Mila Jovovich would sound cool saying moonmoon. She'd be all like "Multipass-moonmoon."
Mmmmm. Mila.
What was I talking about?

Anyhow, I wanted to start this thread to not only introduce myself, but open up a discussion about the logistics of living in a metal-poor star system where your closest neighbor is only 147AU away.

 

[Ralph Rotten]

One of the questions I have about this star system is how difficult would it be to bridge the solar-wind barrier between them. Seems like if they enter in the middle and follow the flow, they should be okay.

How much effort would it be to bridge the gap? Would a pair of dim red dwarfs create enough solar wind to even be an issue?

 

[anorlunda]

"Multipass-moonmoon."

Love it. I already want to see the movie.

how difficult would it be to bridge the solar-wind barrier between them.

What do you mean by bridge? Do you mean pass through it in a spacecraft ?

Edit: I would worry about the stability of the orbits of those planets.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Hi, Ralph Rotten. Welcome to PF!

How much effort would it be to bridge the gap? Would a pair of dim red dwarfs create enough solar wind to even be an issue?

It's still solar wind. It's counted in atoms per cubic centimetre worth of material. For practical purposes (such as flying a space ship) it's excellent vacuum. Check out other figures in that paper you took the one above from. They show proton densities/number densities/particle number densities - which are all the same thing.

 

[chasrob]

Don't mean to derail anything, but what are the odds of continuing to name an entire star system after an obscure 19th century astronomer?

Come to think of it, though; about as possible as us naming two continents after the first name of a map-maker no one ever heard of. ;)

 

[Ralph Rotten]

So from a practical perspective, would one of our probes, like Voyager, be able to survive passing through the divide? These are some pretty dim stars; they're only 12LY away and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Would these stars even create enough photonic activity to be viable at 72AU?

 

[Ralph Rotten]

Or would the issue be more like an EMP wave? (Passing between the two stars)

 

[Klystron]

Summary: (binary red dwarfs orbiting at 147AU from each other.)[...]
The beings in this story live on a moonmoon that orbits a rocky giant that orbits the larger of the 2 stars. A large (5x) planet has been confirmed at this location,
[...]
discussion about the logistics of living in a metal-poor star system where your closest neighbor is only 147AU away.

From a SF veiwpoint light metal space cultures should be doable. We face similar advantage / obstacles exploring the outer reaches of our Solar system where stony moons of gas giants contain water, as do Oort objects.

Chip Samuel Delany creates an interesting moon city on the eponymous "Triton " including discussion of light and heavy metal cultures in 20th C. science fiction.

[from wikipedia:...] Delany has said that Trouble on Triton was written partly in dialogue with Ursula K. Le Guin's anarchist science fiction novel The Dispossessed, whose subtitle was An Ambiguous Utopia.[1] It is also loosely linked to other books by him (particularly Neveryóna) in its references to "the modular calculus", a vaguely described future mathematics that would analyze ...

 

[Bandersnatch]

So from a practical perspective, would one of our probes, like Voyager, be able to survive passing through the divide? These are some pretty dim stars; they're only 12LY away and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Would these stars even create enough photonic activity to be viable at 72AU?

At 72 AU the 'gap' would still have solar wind density many times lower than what's present at 1 AU. So no problems at all.

 

[Ralph Rotten]

I'm curious, if these were more powerful stars, how would that gap manifest itself, in practical terms? Would it be like space-turbulence, river rafting, or some kind of EMP effect? If you flew a modern spacecraft through a much more powerful gap, how would you feel it?

 

[Bandersnatch]

I'm guessing the only effect would be higher background radiation.

 

[Ralph Rotten]

Interesting.

I have been trying to get my mind to imagine life in a system where the nearest star is only 2 light days away.
These are metal-poor stars, but a much lower escape velocity than our own star. The beings in the story come from a 1/3rd gravity moonmoon to the big rocky planet orbiting the larger star. So it's easier for them to get into space, but harder because of limited metal.

Which makes me ask: If you were in a metal-poor star system, what else could you make rockets out of?