Post A Reply
my profile
|
directory
login
|
search
|
faq
|
forum home
»
Flare Sci-Fi Forums
»
Star Trek
»
Starships & Technology
»
$$ Menage-a-Tech! {"Cogenitor" Spoilers]
» Post A Reply
Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message:
HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: [QB] (I didn't see this episode yet, ironically because I was at the Mount Cuba Observatory for my Astronomy class on Wednesday night...) (Also, I apologize in advance for this long rambling post on the minutiae of contemporary astronomical theories. My excuse is that I'm currently taking a university course, Intro to Astronomy, and so I've got a bit more of the technical knowledge that I -- perhaps stupidly -- expect people writing science fiction stories would know something about.) I'll have to reserve final judgement for after I actually see the episode, but it sounds like the astronomy in this episode is a big load of bullshit. Why is it that Braga and his writers must fulfill their urge to have mega-[i]everything[/i]? In astronomy, there's already the stellar classification of "supergiant," which applies to stars which are calculated to have a radius of up to 100 times that of Sol. They're not always that size -- they expand to that towards the ends of their lives, as well. Then there's the overlooked fact that the solar corona itself is actually about 1 million degrees Kelvin (or at least for our sun). According to my textbook, a hypothetical spaceship entering the corona wouldn't actually feel that much heat because of the extremely low density of this part of a star's atmosphere. Nevertheless, if these aliens (and the later Humans in TNG) are measuring solely based on temperature, then they're in big trouble. Of course, this temperature problem is compounded by the fact that the extremely large stars -- type O, generally, which are considered blue in color and are also usually the largest (excepting red giants) have a surface temperature in excess of 30,000 degrees Kelvin. If anyone's interested, I've got a copy of the [URL=http://lobotomy.pleh.net/~flareupload/uploads/444/hertzsprung-russell.jpg]Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram[/URL] that's used in my textbook. According to this, even the supergiants can grow to 10<sup>3</sup> times the radius of the Sun... although these would also have drastically cooled down due to the laws of physics. A supergiant that would still be considered "blue" according to this diagram would have a radius of about 100 times that of the Sun. And these stars are those that have between 10 and 100 times the MASS of the Sun, too... frankly, I'm not too sure that a "hypergiant" category of stars is even literally possible! The only (well-known) star that I could think of is Betelgeuse (in Orion), which is a variable red giant and is calculated to have a diameter that goes between [URL=http://www.stellar-database.com/Scripts/search_star.exe?Name=betelgeuse]550 and 920 times Sol's radius[/URL]. However, this star is "only" a red giant, because according to the laws of physics, any star that inflates its radius to such an incredible size will also cool down because of its lower density. I'd probably ramble on some more, but I have to leave to go to class in a few minutes. Suffice to say, I don't buy this "hypergiant" concept for a single second. I think it's just a symptom of Mr. Braga looking for some kind of "bigger and better" concept of astronomy that'll be "kewl" for the show. *sigh* I know that science is unfortunately not the highest priority in any television show... but you'd think that with a NASA-credited science advisor on their staff, they'd have the good sense to listen to him from time to time. Oh, well. :rolleyes: [/QB][/QUOTE]
Instant Graemlins
Instant UBB Code™
What is UBB Code™?
Options
Disable Graemlins in this post.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
© 1999-2024 Charles Capps
Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3