Subject:
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Re: Local space -- here's a real map!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space
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Date:
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Tue, 23 Nov 1999 11:08:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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514 times
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Hello again,
Tim Courtney wrote:
> At 10:12 AM 11/20/1999 , John J. Ladasky Jr. wrote:
> > Take a look at the distance chart again. Wolf 359 and Lalande 21185 may
> > appear to be a lot farther from alpha Centauri and Barnard's Star than
> > they are from Sol, but in fact they're less than 1.5 times farther
> > off. Wolf 359 and Lalande 21185 are also closer to each other than any
> > other pair of systems on the list, making travel between them easy.
>
> I'm not doubting that, but Zacktron's already been written into the Alpha
> Centauri system, as well as Barnard's Star. Those two may come into play
> in the future if an alien race is discovered.
O.K., all I'm trying to say is that Wolf 359 and Lalande 21185 are not that much
harder to reach from alpha Centauri or Barnard's Star. I agree that the latter
two stars were good first choices for your interstellar exodus.
If you're allowing humans to survive under the dim bulb of Barnard's Star, then
Lalande 21185 would also do, as it's a bit brighter. Wolf 359 is super-dim. You
probably want to pass it by.
Where you go from this inner core is a good question. If I get the gist of what
you are saying, you were interested in close neighbors to a Cen. or Barnard's.
Sad to say, the space immediately to the rear of these two stars, as seen from
the perspective of Sol, is a bit empty. Check out the local star map at:
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~thenry/map25.html
And if you're into reading tables, the numerical data used to generate this chart
can be found at:
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~thenry/TOP25.htm
This is not a 3D map like the one I sent you before, but it makes the point. All
the stars within a 4.01-parsec radius of Sol are shown, projected onto a 2D
surface. Continuing in the general direction of a Cen., there's nothing. Behind
Barnard's Star are two red dwarf systems. The solitary star is Gliese 729, aka
Ross 154; it's roughly as bright as Barnard's. Then there's a pair, known as
Gliese 725 A and B. These are both even dimmer than Barnard's. With all three
of these stars, planets would have to be in close to be warm. I can't find any
references offhand that say that any of these might be flare stars, but a more
thorough search might turn something up.
If you want more systems that are likely to harbor indigenous life, or ones which
humans might colonize relatively painlessly, you have to jump out to epsilon
Eridani and tau Ceti. There are located at the upper right edge of the map.
They're also not far from each other.
[snip]
> > > (wanna be written in as a Zacktron admiral?)
> >
> > Does the job come with tenure? 8^) 8^)
>
> We'll discuss that, but it comes with the command of a rather powerful
> capital ship ;) Seriously, if you like, I'll write your name in as an
> admiral into Zacktron storylines. Its kinda hard to come up with names (in
> screenwriting its harder), so anytime I can name a character after someone
> its easier.
That's amusing -- sure, write me in! You can give me the one-way, long-shot
mission to tau Ceti -- but make sure it pans out, O.K.? 8^)
--
John J. Ladasky Jr., Ph.D.
Department of Structural Biology
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, CA 94305
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Local space -- here's a real map!
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| (...) I'm not doubting that, but Zacktron's already been written into the Alpha Centauri system, as well as Barnard's Star. Those two may come into play in the future if an alien race is discovered. (...) I guess that scratches UV Ceti from any (...) (25 years ago, 20-Nov-99, to lugnet.space)
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