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Territorial limit for star systems?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: [QB] I'd be hesitant to accept a border that relies on the Oort Cloud... aside from astronomers being uncertain about how far out it really goes, it's also a feature that is made up of thousands or millions of small objects, and would very likely not be consistent at all from system to system. We've already found stars that have planets several times the mass of Jupiter that orbit their primary closer than Mercury does our sun. How would THAT affect a system's Oort Cloud, I wonder? On top of that, what about cometary halo objects that follow an orbit that takes it really far from a star -- so that it crosses in and out of the star system's boundary? That could give rise to some ownership or jurisdiction conflicts, if a comet has just exited or entered a system (or is about to do so). (This doesn't matter whether or not a system is inhabited/habitable -- there's still mining rights to consider. After all, Nevada is just an uninhabitable wasteland, and yet we still consider it a state. ;) ) At any rate, I think that the interstellar medium is still our best bet. Either that, or a specific distance that's set for all systems regardless of size. Actually, now that I think about it, the set and static boundary sounds like a better bet. It's just occurred to me that the interstellar medium is essentially the gigantic dust clouds in the spiral arms of our galaxy that give it (and all spiral galaxies) their characteristic shape and appearance. As Masao mentioned, the interstellar medium would hardly be constant. It would even be likely to change a little bit as a star goes through cycles in solar flares or even its life cycle of growth and decline. I'd be willing to bet that, should we ever launch a probe powerful enough to quickly reach the edge of the heliopause and actually study it, we'd find some kind of relationship between solar flares and the size/shape of the heliopause. I'm not up on my terrestrial geology... what's the edge of the continental shelves, approximately? Whatever it is, I'm sure it can't be consistent all over the world, from shoreline to the beginning of the plummet to the sea floor. I'd suggest that the heliopause would be somewhat equivalent to the edge of the continental shelf. Therefore, a set radius to set the boundary would probably be the best option. Say, one or two light-years. The only potential problem would be multiple-star systems. But probably coincidentally, Trek has often shown binary star systems to be the location of more frequent conflicts -- we could say that's not just (or directly) from the proximity of the two planets, but from the borders between them, as well. One more idea... concerning the defense boundaries. What if you took the idea of the Exclusive Economic Zone and applied it to defense? The Federation is somewhat unique in the galaxy, in that it's a union of many separate governments rather than a single race that's taking over a whole swath of territory. Since individual planets (systems) would be somewhat equivalent to the states in the US, perhaps this two-light-year limit is the boundary for the star systems, but the Federation claims something larger for "mutual defense and security" or whatever they'd like to call it. Ultimately, it's still space that's unclaimed by any one system, and the Federation as a whole tells any other alien government that they can't have it. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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