Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
sciencedaily.com
Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
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Re: Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
#2I wonder how we'd feel as a species if our star was one of these instead of being the Sun.
We'd see this amazing group of stars and planets, going away from us knowing the more we wait for space travel to less likely our species would to reach any other star system.
Re: Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
#3I wonder how we'd feel as a species if our star was one of these instead of being the Sun. We'd see this amazing group of stars and planets, going away from us knowing the more we wait for space travel to less likely our species would to reach any other star system.
The more interesting question is how you would feel if one of the inbound stars was inbound directly toward our sun.
Re: Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
#4I wonder how we'd feel as a species if our star was one of these instead of being the Sun. We'd see this amazing group of stars and planets, going away from us knowing the more we wait for space travel to less likely our species would to reach any other star system.
The more interesting question is how you would feel if one of the inbound stars was inbound directly toward our sun.
You underestimate the emptiness of space.
Re: Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
#5I wonder how we'd feel as a species if our star was one of these instead of being the Sun. We'd see this amazing group of stars and planets, going away from us knowing the more we wait for space travel to less likely our species would to reach any other star system.
I have this science fiction writing/game backstory idea I recently came up with. Feel free to use it, as I guess I won't get around to do anything with it any time soon. Copying straight from my "ideas" file:
At some point in time (past or future, or magically also present), a star passed in very close vicinity to our sun. It had a habitable planet in its system, full of alien plant and animal life. For the brief moment it was Δv-accessible, it was studied, and eventually colonized. The people going there knew it was going to be a one-way trip, as the star eventually moved further away. Possible stories to set before, during, or after encounter (or even long, long after).
(This works for no-FTL, hard sci-fi setting. By "very close vicinity" I mean, close enough for us to reach it via sublight propulsion, but still far enough not to mess up the inner Solar System gravitationally.)
--
EDIT: Wow, turns out this isn't even that implausible - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18123098.
Re: Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
The more interesting question is how you would feel if one of the inbound stars was inbound directly toward our sun.
You underestimate the emptiness of space.
We had a "close" flyby (0.82 lightyears) about 70,000 years ago!
Re: Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
#7What better intergalactic colony ship than a whole star system accelerated to a significant fraction of c.
Re: Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
You underestimate the emptiness of space.
We had a "close" flyby (0.82 lightyears) about 70,000 years ago! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholz%27s_Star
> A star is expected to pass through the Oort Cloud every 100,000 years or so.[4] An approach as close or closer than 52,000 AU is expected to occur about every 9 million years.[2] In about 1.4 million years, Gliese 710 will pass somewhere between 8,800 and 13,700 AU from the Sun.
Just wow.
Re: Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
#9That's no star...
Re: Gaia spots stars flying between galaxies
#10I wonder how we'd feel as a species if our star was one of these instead of being the Sun. We'd see this amazing group of stars and planets, going away from us knowing the more we wait for space travel to less likely our species would to reach any other star system.
How would it impact a solar system if one of these relativistic stars got too close? Any chance it could pick up a few planets, or would they mostly be flung into space?
Along that point, what does the heliosphere of such a star look like - a giant comet?
Lastly, were a life-bearing planet sent into space this way have any chance of maintaining that life without a parent star to heat and magnetically shield it?