Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Eridanus
Googling "Eridanus," I learned that:
there is an Eridanus supervoid;
filaments of gravitationally bound galaxies are the largest known structures in the universe and form the boundaries of voids.
I did not know any of that.
Poul Anderson speculated about trans-galactic cosmic structures in Tau Zero and World Without Stars. See here. But he did not know about filaments or voids.
Moving Planets
"So you couldn't ease this planet into a suitable orbit around Beta Crucis. It must continue its endless wanderings."
-Poul Anderson, Satan's World IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 329-598 AT p. 357.
Would gravity control not allow the moving of planets? In James Blish's Cities In Flight, men move a planet between galaxies faster than light with graviton polarity generators. In Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker, the telepathic galactic mind launches a star cluster between galaxies.
Satan, the planet passing close to Beta Crucis, is a rogue. It seems that Anderson is correct when he tells us that there are many such planets. Satan's cryosphere becomes atmosphere and hydrosphere at periastron passage but re-forms during recession.
"'Nothing basic would have happened.'"
-op. cit., p. 356.
- except that the planet can be put to massive industrial use while it is energized. Satan and Mirkheim are two amazing creations by Anderson and the latter idea was suggested by his editor, John W. Campbell.
London And Luna
Both London and Luna are in the cosmos although we do do not think of London as a "cosmic environment."
In London, to evade any followers, Leamas:
suddenly jumps on a bus to Ludgate Hill;
dismounts in a traffic jam;
catches a tube;
stands in the end carriage;
alights at the next station;
catches another train to Euston;
goes back to Charing Cross, where a van waits in the forecourt.
On Luna, to evade any followers, Falkayn:
passes through a large sporting goods store;
walks behind large items;
leaves by a rear door;
finds a kiosk;
enters the antigrav dropshaft;
gets off at the eighth sublevel;
proceeds along the corridors to his destination.
In one of his novels, Frederick Forsyth explains how a trained team can follow anyone without being spotted and not lose him. Anyone who turns a corner, runs to the next corner and looks back merely alerts the team that he thinks he might be followed.
Thursday, 25 January 2018
On The Planet Lucifer II
Quetlan and Laura, the suns of Ythri and Avalon respectively, are in the constellation Lupus.
Coya, astrophysicist and frequent space traveler, is at home in the
universe, able to identify the brightest stars among the rest. The Dewfall
has traveled at high speed for nearly a month from Quetlan towards the
Deneb sector. Since Quetlan is 278 light years from Sol towards Lupus,
they are now a hundred parsecs from Earth in unknown space. Coya knows
this. To that extent, she is as at home there as a Londoner is in Hyde
Park. The universe is our home and we ought to be one with it.
-copied from here.
We first read of Avalon in Hloch's Introduction to "The Problem of Pain," then in a conversation on Lucifer:
The planet Lucifer is inhospitable but might be marginally habitable
and has mineral wealth. Both days and nights are long, storms are
frequent, there is no green vegetation and the violent blue sun
continually disrupts electronics. A uranium-concentrating root causes a
unique ecological cycle in one area.
-copied from here.
I am rereading the relevant passages of "The Problem of Pain" for any
more information about Lucifer. The narrator tells us that the planet is
well named. However, if it proves to be even marginally habitable, then
its mineral wealth will be worth exploiting. The exploratory team must
determine whether the survival problems can be solved economically.
Furious day-time weather ends in a twilight gale. Storms blow dust. The
air is thin. Auroras flame. Frost covers the land and glittering ice
sheathes twisted "trees."
When, in the concluding sentence, the sun rises from the burning
horizon, I think that this is an appropriate pathetic fallacy for the
theme of the story. See here.
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Unusual Iapetus
The upshot is that this Saturnian moon becomes yet another of Poul Anderson's "Unusual Heavenly Bodies." See here.