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Originally posted by rallem:
Joss Wheden said there is no FTL travel in the 'Verse, but from a map of the 'Verse I saw somewhere online it looked like there were five suns in the shape of pentagram with the center star being a blue giant.



How would you travel five solar systems without ftl travel, and if there is only one how do you get 90 some odd earths to fit in the terra belt when our sun can only fit three?

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Originally posted by FlatTop:

Quote:

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Originally posted by rallem:
Joss Wheden said there is no FTL travel in the 'Verse, but from a map of the 'Verse I saw somewhere online it looked like there were five suns in the shape of pentagram with the center star being a blue giant.



How would you travel five solar systems without ftl travel, and if there is only one how do you get 90 some odd earths to fit in the terra belt when our sun can only fit three?

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Going just from this, and a minor bit of poorly remembered education...

The map isn't actually to scale. It's more of a conceptual representation of single solar system that orbits the blue giant (think about maps of the USA that shoehorn in Alaska & Hawaii).
The straight lines from point to point aren't actual transit paths. Gravity & orbital velocities make everything involving interplanetary (& interstellar & intergalactic) travel involve curves (even beams of light bend when exposed to gravity), so again, just concept lines.
The outer 'suns' may be gas giants that are large enough to generate enough heat to make their moons habitable, but not quite big enough to be classed as suns. The various planets and moons that are inhabited are all actually moons of the gas giants.

I suppose it's possible for 5 gas giants and their various moons to be in geosynchronous (or even geostationary) orbit around a single star, in which case the realative positions in the solar ecliptic could be literal...

This is a constant point of contention amongst fans. I think Joss may not have particularly cared if this system could really exist. He just needed to tell his story, and made the verse fit.


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Perhaps Joss Whedon didn't care if the 'verse worked, but as a fan of multiple sci fi stories I sort of do and try making sense of stuff even if an illogical leap of faith has to be made.

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Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:
That is an eerie-ass system there.

I'd go with the Alliance Standard Time. My vision - the Central Square in Londinium, and a very big clock, something mock-Gothic and Burtonesque. The actual timekeeping would be atomic or the like, but with a traditional face and hands. They light it up on holidays.

I'm not sure every planet is actually inhabited - those that are probably conform to a certain standard of gravity and rotation, and climatic range. Though I have it in my head that there may be planets that are not M-class but might be mineral rich, with outposts that are purely commercial, rather than 'settlements'.

Humans are very adaptable. Somewhere out there will be planets that spend six months in darkness. The settlers probably have names like Magnussen.

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