If you live in Los Angeles (around 33°52’N, roughly the latitude of Hermosa Beach) the black hole in V404 Cygni passes over you each day. On Christmas Day it will be directly overhead around 2pm.
As per the Planet-building show room on Magrathea, it’s big things that help me recognize the magnitude of the universe around us (or rather our infinitesimal presence in it). I have a 12K x 12K image of the sun (our astronomical societies take them daily) that I look at the details of when I want to be reminded how teeny tiny I am. (The sun alone is 99.8% of the mass of the solar system.)
And there are stars hundreds of times more massive.
In a program called SpaceEngine, the observable universe is simulated, based on everything we know so far.
You can fly around freely and if you start at earth, you’ve got this blue beautiful ball right next to you and an ocean of stars all around you.
First I flew towards the sun with the speed of light. Earth got tiny quickly, but then you realise: it would still take you 8 full minutes to get to the sun at this speed.
So you pump the speed to millions of light years per second (luckily we can ignore the laws of physics).
You stop at a random place, some hundreds of millions of light years away from earth.
And then you realise what astronomers mean when they say: the universe is basically homogeneous. It looks basically the same everywhere.
And in fact you once again see an ocean of stars in front of you. Just as if you were back at earth. However as you turn around, there is of course no earth, but the same view of an ocean of stars and earth is unimaginable far away. You are alone in an infinite ocean of light.
This program truely messed with my head (in a good way).
To take this thought to the logical maximum, we are all under the stars, always. All buildings are ultimately outside, and therefore under the stars. Even in the sub-basement of the tallest building, the floors above aren’t that high compared to the atmosphere, and it’s still under the stars.
2010: The Year We Make Contact (abbreviated on-screen as simply 2010) is a 1984 American science fiction film written, produced, shot and directed by Peter Hyams.
Peter Hyams children have had interesting career paths. His first son, Chris Hyams, is the CEO of the job search website Indeed. His second son, John Hyams, is a film director (Universal Soldier: Regeneration). His third son, Nick Hyams, works as a battle rap promoter and host under the name Lush One.
What a terrifying thought! I imagine there’s some other sapient race out there that has experienced that.
Now think about the kinds of predators that evolved in constant night, which those people found while exploring the darkness. Then they develop telescopes and discover other worlds on which the night moves…
Unless the animals have developed a way to move for miles every day, there should be predators who are adjusted for the night side, and predators who are adjusted for the day side that would be well known and defended against from the prey on their side. For a sentient species, figuring out how to defend against one or the other shouldn’t be too hard.
What would be harder to defend against would be those predators who live in the twilight areas are close to both day & night.
Kinda. I imagine the GP meant predators that live on the border of night specializing in devouring anything that makes a wrong errand and ends-up there. Like the ones we have at the bottom of the ocean.
On a second thought, I don’t think they would be very scary. Probably mostly scavengers.
Probably, yeah. Definitely can’t be good for them. I’m not a biologist, but I encourage anyone reading this to chime in! What happens to cave-dwelling creatures when brought out into the sun for an extended period?
I didn’t make it clear in my original comment, but in my head I imagined a race whose explorers swore off venturing into the darkness after the first few disappearances. Maybe some folklore emerged, and they assumed that “that place” and death are intrinsically related. Then, as their tech became more advanced, they gained the ability to scrutinize the other planets in their star system. Imagine the horror when they see “death” wandering along the surface (rather, the surface moving through it) and they have no clue why theirs isn’t moving.
Is it merely asleep?
This was a fun thought experiment. Thanks for getting my brain churning! I’d love to read someone’s expansion on this idea, if anyone else finds it fascinating. At this point in the lore, I can see religions being born to try and appease Death, or at least prolong its slumber in the frozen hemisphere while they search for answers. Wars are fought, nations fall, yada yada… Maybe it’s best not to draw too many parallels with our own world 😁
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy has an alien species that evolved on a planet (Krikkit)with constant thick dust clouds.
Upon first witnessing the glory and splendor of the Universe, they casually, whimsically, decided to destroy it, remarking, “It’ll have to go.” (…) the Krikkiters built an incredible battlefleet and waged a massive war against the entire Universe. The Galaxy, then in an era of relative peace, was unprepared, and spent the next 2,000 years fighting the Krikkiters in a war that resulted in about two “grillion” casualties
Isaac Asimov also mused about ribbon worlds. ie tidally locked planets with a habitable zone in the twilight regions.
I seem to recall also reading a story about a species on a ribbon world but because of precession had a 10,000 year (or so) day. They had a constant slow migration and eventually started finding the ancient forgotten ruins of their own society.
I’m glad Asimov also thought of The Long Street or Eternal Dusk I wondered how wide the strip of settleable territory might be, say on a earth-sized tide-locked planet.
The moon is tide-locked to the earth, but wobbles back and forth, so a tide locked world might also have a day / season cycle where the fringes get extra hot / cold.
I have read a short story about a world with like 9 suns and 3 moons. It’s day all the time, except once every 2000 years, when there is a total solar eclipse. So every 2000 years society falls into chaos, most of the population kills themselves and only rich people, who can afford enough candles/fire or people who are passed out drunk survive the eclipse. At the time the story takes place one astronomer/scientist notices the pattern in their history and like predicts it or something.
Sadly I do not know the link. If anyone recognizes the story I would love to read it again.
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