Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.

Do the recent discoveries at the Pluto system contradict what was written in Rimward?

13 posts / 0 new
Last post
Fri, 2015-07-17 10:01
#1
obsidian razor obsidian razor's picture
Do the recent discoveries at the Pluto system contradict what was written in Rimward?
So this is out most of curiosity than anything else. I don't have Rimward currently at hand, but I'm curious, is the write up for Pluto and it's system contradictory to what New Horizons has been feeding us lately? Also, how do you think these recent discoveries can make the system more interesting?
Top
Fri, 2015-07-17 11:47
uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture
I don't think so. That was my
I don't think so. That was my concern with Mimas a few months ago. https://eclipse-phase.wikispaces.com/Pluto
—
Exhuman, and Humanitarian.
Top
Fri, 2015-07-17 15:34
jKaiser jKaiser's picture
Most of Pluto in Rimward
Most of Pluto in Rimward focused on the mining microcorps floating at the Pluto-Charon barycenter, with little written about the iceball itself. (In my version of the setting, the mining groups are secondary to a monastery/retreat there, since there's nowhere else in the system you can really be at the true center of something. Hasn't actually come into play yet, though.)
Top
Fri, 2015-07-17 18:13
UnitOmega UnitOmega's picture
New Horizon might shed some
New Horizon might shed some light on Pluto's four (other) moons, which have been imaged but the pictures aren't downloaded yet. Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra are relatively recent discoveries, some of them made around or after Rimward came out - and they only get a mention in a line about "moonlets". Honestly, There's not a lot about Pluto or Charon or any of it to be contradicted, just "pluto is far and cold and has some metals and stuff people try and dig up". Feels like kind of a missed opportunity, considering they threw in stuff like Tyche - which, while interesting, has very little practical import at a range of 50,000 AU.
—
H-Rep: An EP Homebrew Blog http://ephrep.blogspot.com/
Top
Fri, 2015-07-17 18:17
jKaiser jKaiser's picture
Since you brought it up, any
Since you brought it up, any idea where they got the 50k AU distance for Tyche? Every source I've found online puts its hypothetical placement much, much closer, around the 5k AU mark. (Though admittedly, it being so far out there in EP does put it out of the "nope, no planet here" range of WISE.)
Top
Fri, 2015-07-17 19:25
UnitOmega UnitOmega's picture
I think that was just it, it
I think that was just it, it was slightly future-proofed in that making it large (5 Jupiter Masses) but far means that at least in the near future with WISE and similar it couldn't be categorically disproven.
—
H-Rep: An EP Homebrew Blog http://ephrep.blogspot.com/
Top
Sat, 2015-07-18 12:14
wwwjason wwwjason's picture
WISE data has recently ruled
WISE data has recently ruled out a solar companion: http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/wise/planet-x-20140307
Top
Sat, 2015-07-18 13:23
UnitOmega UnitOmega's picture
Actually, EP dodges the
Actually, EP dodges the current WISE data. To quote from that link you posted
Quote:
This recent study, which involved an examination of WISE data covering the entire sky in infrared light, found no object the size of Saturn or larger exists out to a distance of 10,000 astronomical units (au), and no object larger than Jupiter exists out to 26,000 au.
In Rimward, Tyche is described as 50,000 au distant and roughly [i]four[/i] Jupiter masses, which isn't completely ruled out by WISE (or at least, doesn't seem to be based on what I keep hearing the data is). However, due to it's extreme distance, I'd wager we're not going for the Planet X Mass Extinction theory, though, but somebody with a better grasp of the field would have to confirm if it could still seriously affect comets and the like at that range.
—
H-Rep: An EP Homebrew Blog http://ephrep.blogspot.com/
Top
Sat, 2015-07-18 22:25
Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture
totally geeking out over planetary exploration here!
On the contrary, I think that the diversity of terrain seen by New Horizons would be a boon for spicing up descriptions of the outer system objects. Places like Eris aren't limited to cratered wastelands but can have just as much going on as inner system planets.
jKaiser wrote:
(In my version of the setting, the mining groups are secondary to a monastery/retreat there, since there's nowhere else in the system you can really be at the true center of something. Hasn't actually come into play yet, though.)
except Locus but that's not really conducive to the meditational mindset !:) I think most of the time the authors wisely stick with a minimum of detail and let real science fill in the blanks. Short of a catastrophe where an entire asteroid is destroyed or something the information is going to be valid for a really long time. Of course as I say this there's talk of a mission to Europa so I could be mistaken. As for Tyche, I did a bit of math on its size and came away with it being smaller that Saturn and it's much colder too (13°K) so that could let it slip past observation. My pet theory about Tyche is :
Spoiler: Highlight to view
it's a gate,or part of the gate system- like a junction for the gates in the Sol system. It's also possibly how the Factors got here and their lighthugger tech is a smokescreen for whatever long con they're playing on transhumanity.
—
Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!
Top
Sun, 2015-07-19 15:23
wwwjason wwwjason's picture
UnitOmega wrote:Actually, EP
UnitOmega wrote:
Actually, EP dodges the current WISE data. To quote from that link you posted
Quote:
This recent study, which involved an examination of WISE data covering the entire sky in infrared light, found no object the size of Saturn or larger exists out to a distance of 10,000 astronomical units (au), and no object larger than Jupiter exists out to 26,000 au.
In Rimward, Tyche is described as 50,000 au distant and roughly [i]four[/i] Jupiter masses, which isn't completely ruled out by WISE (or at least, doesn't seem to be based on what I keep hearing the data is). However, due to it's extreme distance, I'd wager we're not going for the Planet X Mass Extinction theory, though, but somebody with a better grasp of the field would have to confirm if it could still seriously affect comets and the like at that range.
You're absolutely right about the article I linked. Here's the one that was in my head regarding WISE's range and sensitivity: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2009/2070.html From the article, "Wright told me that the DIRBE instrument on COBE was really, really insensitive, but a consequence of that was that unlike most other infrared instruments it could look directly at Jupiter without saturating. Using the DIRBE measurements of Jupiter's infrared radiation, they determined that WISE would be able to detect another Jupiter, if there was one, out to one light year, which is quite far but still within our Sun's zone of gravitational control. An object with two to three times Jupiter's mass -- a lightweight brown dwarf -- should be observable at a distance of two or three parsecs (seven to ten light years)." I'm curious if there are still outstanding data or instrument bands being processed - if there are any experts in the forum, I'd love to hear their thoughts. FWIW, I find Tyche to be one of the more intriguing mysteries in EP (i.e., is it something like Hyundai +4904/-56 from Accelerando, etc.).
Top
Sun, 2015-07-19 16:53
UnitOmega UnitOmega's picture
Ah, now that is a sight more
Ah, now that is a sight more specific. And not commonly how I hear WISE interpreted. Tyche could still boggle expectations due to the fact that it's way colder and less dense than it should be, or at least as Rimward says. It could have been deliberately masked for sinister, cosmic purposes. I still say it's hard to work with because it's so far out, though. But my money is on the Factor's secret outpost.
—
H-Rep: An EP Homebrew Blog http://ephrep.blogspot.com/
Top
Mon, 2015-07-20 08:17
kindalas kindalas's picture
I'm betting that Tyche
I'm betting that Tyche "system" has the Factor Homeworld.
—
I am a Moderator of this Forum [color=red]My mod voice is red.[/color] The Eclipse Phase Character sheet is downloadable here: [url=http://sites.google.com/site/eclipsephases/home/cabinet] Get it here![/url]
Top
Mon, 2015-07-20 16:00
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
I highly doubt it would be
I highly doubt it would be their homeworld. Their base in Sol's gravitational influence, probably. But not their homeworld.
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
Top