Thursday 15 September 2011

Two Suns in the Sunset

Fascinating story of the planet Kepler-16b as it orbits its two suns. scienceblog.com compares it to Tatooine, although it is not a desert planet. But I remember those other planets that orbited multiple stars in their different ways - Helliconia and, especially, Magrathea:

"Night's falling," he said. "Look robot, the stars are coming out."
From the heart of a dark nebula it is possible to see very few stars, and only very faintly, but they were there to be seen. The robot obediently looked at them, then looked back.
"I know," he said. "Wretched isn't it?"
"But that sunset! I've never seen anything like it in my wildest dreams ... the two suns! It was like mountains of fire boiling into space."
"I've seen it," said Marvin. "It's rubbish."
"We only ever had the one sun at home," persevered Arthur, "I came from a planet called Earth you know."
"I know," said Marvin, "you keep going on about it. It sounds awful."
"Ah no, it was a beautiful place."
"Did it have oceans?"
"Oh yes," said Arthur with a sigh, "great wide rolling blue oceans..."
"Can't bear oceans," said Marvin.

5 comments :

  1. Imagine how Stonehenge would have looked if we had 2 suns.

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  2. By the way, are you guys considering abstaining from tofu on Fridays?

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  3. I knew it, Star Wars *is* true... ;)

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  4. We abstain from eating tofu every day of the week.

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  5. Can't say as I blame you. Filthy stuff.

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