4 ms·

Imagine being on some planet far away, just living your life, and a literal star comes through and ends all life in the system.

xwdv 6y ago
If the star is a direct hit on your planet, it would look as if a second sun was getting brighter and larger, and the heat so unbearable you’ll be dead before there’s any impact.
- bangonkeyboard 6y ago
  Finis, by Frank Pollack: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605041.txt http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605041.txt
  - tmoaad 6y ago
    What a fantastic short story. Thanks for sharing!
  - Koshkin 6y ago
    Books from fifty years ago are difficult to read now, mostly due to a blatant sexism. An example from the first page of this text: “Probably she had brains...” That’s right! Men are smart, women are beautiful and wear nice clothes.
    - cgriswald 6y ago
      Your post comes across as needlessly biased, pejoratively modernist, and ignorant. > Books from fifty years ago are difficult to read now, mostly due to a blatant sexism. Fifty years ago was 1970. I don't think anyone has a problem reading Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret, Johnathan Livingston Seagull, or Ringworld due to blatant sexism. "Finis" is a short story and was first published over 100 years ago. > An example from the first page of this text: “Probably she had brains...” "Probably she had brains..." is not evidence of sexism. It's not even evidence of a bias that people generally don't have brains, much less women. It's literally a character's (Eastwood's) conclusion based on observation of another character's (Mrs. Davis') behaviors and habits. Eastwood doesn't show surprise that a woman could be smart. He doesn't deny that she is smart in spite of the evidence. And even if he had done so, a character being sexist wouldn't ipso facto make the work as a whole sexist.
- BurningFrog 6y ago
  It wouldn't just show up some day, ambush style. It would be slowly getting closer and closer over centuries. The warning doesn't really change how the story ends though...
  - foota 6y ago
    It could, if you're where we are now developmentally you could conceivably determine a safe place in the solar system to colonize in the thousands or more likely millions of years it would take to arrive, right? Or maybe more realistically leave or build large scale space habitats (since there might be no safe planet due to rotation of them).
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      Generally a star plowing through your solar system is going to throw most orbits into wack, so you may not want to be in the solar system at all.
      - cgriswald 6y ago
        Assuming you lack the capacity to leave for good, you probably want to be in the system, but in a well-stocked tin can rather than a planet. You won’t be able to maneuver a planet but your tin can might be able to stick around. Afterwards you’ll need a star and whatever planets didn’t get eaten or flung out of the system. You definitely don’t want to be on a planet that gets flung out of both systems. Even if you somehow had millions of years of fuel, your civilization would probably never be close to any other body in space again.
      - foota 6y ago
        Hah, amusingly I failed to consider that. I wonder how fast a sun would have to move through to have a negligible (or at least not catastrophic) effect on orbits?
        samus 6y ago
        The Oort cloud around the Solar system ranges halfway to the next star. That far out the Sun is probably not the only relevant influence anymore. Even though stars would have to get really close to be able to mess up orbits of the inner Solar system, a large comet can absolutely wreck the biosphere if it hits us.
- menybuvico 6y ago
  Somewhat related, although it's not a central part of the plot: Polaris by Jack McDevitt.

xwdv 6y ago

If the star is a direct hit on your planet, it would look as if a second sun was getting brighter and larger, and the heat so unbearable you’ll be dead before there’s any impact.

bangonkeyboard 6y ago
Finis, by Frank Pollack: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605041.txt http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605041.txt
- tmoaad 6y ago
  What a fantastic short story. Thanks for sharing!
- Koshkin 6y ago
  Books from fifty years ago are difficult to read now, mostly due to a blatant sexism. An example from the first page of this text: “Probably she had brains...” That’s right! Men are smart, women are beautiful and wear nice clothes.
  - cgriswald 6y ago
    Your post comes across as needlessly biased, pejoratively modernist, and ignorant. > Books from fifty years ago are difficult to read now, mostly due to a blatant sexism. Fifty years ago was 1970. I don't think anyone has a problem reading Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret, Johnathan Livingston Seagull, or Ringworld due to blatant sexism. "Finis" is a short story and was first published over 100 years ago. > An example from the first page of this text: “Probably she had brains...” "Probably she had brains..." is not evidence of sexism. It's not even evidence of a bias that people generally don't have brains, much less women. It's literally a character's (Eastwood's) conclusion based on observation of another character's (Mrs. Davis') behaviors and habits. Eastwood doesn't show surprise that a woman could be smart. He doesn't deny that she is smart in spite of the evidence. And even if he had done so, a character being sexist wouldn't ipso facto make the work as a whole sexist.
BurningFrog 6y ago
It wouldn't just show up some day, ambush style. It would be slowly getting closer and closer over centuries. The warning doesn't really change how the story ends though...
- foota 6y ago
  It could, if you're where we are now developmentally you could conceivably determine a safe place in the solar system to colonize in the thousands or more likely millions of years it would take to arrive, right? Or maybe more realistically leave or build large scale space habitats (since there might be no safe planet due to rotation of them).
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    Generally a star plowing through your solar system is going to throw most orbits into wack, so you may not want to be in the solar system at all.
    - cgriswald 6y ago
      Assuming you lack the capacity to leave for good, you probably want to be in the system, but in a well-stocked tin can rather than a planet. You won’t be able to maneuver a planet but your tin can might be able to stick around. Afterwards you’ll need a star and whatever planets didn’t get eaten or flung out of the system. You definitely don’t want to be on a planet that gets flung out of both systems. Even if you somehow had millions of years of fuel, your civilization would probably never be close to any other body in space again.
    - foota 6y ago
      Hah, amusingly I failed to consider that. I wonder how fast a sun would have to move through to have a negligible (or at least not catastrophic) effect on orbits?
      - samus 6y ago
        The Oort cloud around the Solar system ranges halfway to the next star. That far out the Sun is probably not the only relevant influence anymore. Even though stars would have to get really close to be able to mess up orbits of the inner Solar system, a large comet can absolutely wreck the biosphere if it hits us.
menybuvico 6y ago
Somewhat related, although it's not a central part of the plot: Polaris by Jack McDevitt.