Firefly Universe

[Atgard]

So I just started with US2 yesterday (I downloaded it for my 3.5-year-old son who is crazy about all things astronomical -- or at least that's how I justified the purchase), and I saw some of the cool user-created universes. I was wondering if there are any other Firefly/Serenity fans out there who know more about the program than I do who may have created a Firefly System -- there are posters and such out there that describe the various planets & moons described in the show & movie.

If anyone has made or is interested in making such a thing, I'd be grateful and I'm sure some other Browncoats would be also!

[JMBuilder]

https://i.stack.imgur.com/qV57C.jpg

Apparently there's an extremely in-depth map that I never knew of. Just looked it up.

That being said, I'm not entirely sure if all of these stars are supposed to be in the same star system. A system with so many stars might be pretty unstable.

[Physics_Hacker]

https://i.stack.imgur.com/qV57C.jpg

Apparently there's an extremely in-depth map that I never knew of. Just looked it up.

That being said, I'm not entirely sure if all of these stars are supposed to be in the same star system. A system with so many stars might be pretty unstable.

Well, its saying that they all orbit that center star, so I'm guessing even with the huge size of that system being apparent, its really unstable...

[Atgard]

So you don't think there's a way to make it work with stable orbits? I suppose whoever made that poster didn't use US2 to check if it was possible? (It does seem like an awful lot of stars and proto-stars for one system.)

Even a simplified version with some of the key planets mentioned in the show/movie could be pretty cool.

[JMBuilder]

So you don't think there's a way to make it work with stable orbits? I suppose whoever made that poster didn't use US2 to check if it was possible? (It does seem like an awful lot of stars and proto-stars for one system.)

Even a simplified version with some of the key planets mentioned in the show/movie could be pretty cool.

It would be easy enough to create each individual star system in separate saves. Even the "protostars" (probably very large gas giants with enough mass to make them red-hot in US2) orbiting the main stars might be viable.

Using the Red Sun system as an example, the red main-sequence star and the two protostars form a trinary system. Unlike the map depicts, the protostars would be incapable of orbiting as regular planets because of their mass. The main star and one of the protostars would orbit in a binary fashion (far enough apart for planets to orbit them properly), with the other protostar in a circumbinary orbit further out.

It's possible that you could use a very large white supergiant for the White Sun. It might have enough mass for the smaller main-sequence stars to orbit it, but once again, it would take some serious choreography with the "make binary" and barycenter functions that I have yet to figure out myself.

You could always take some creative freedom and have the systems orbit a fairly massive black hole in their own little mini-galaxy.

[Atgard]

Those sound like some very cool ideas, and I would have no problems with taking creative liberties in order to make it all work. I don't even know about the functions you mentioned, so I'm still a long way from being able to design my own systems, let alone anything this complex. I'm kinda surprised there aren't more Firefly nuts like me out there who have already given it a go.

[JMBuilder]

Those sound like some very cool ideas, and I would have no problems with taking creative liberties in order to make it all work. I don't even know about the functions you mentioned, so I'm still a long way from being able to design my own systems, let alone anything this complex. I'm kinda surprised there aren't more Firefly nuts like me out there who have already given it a go.

Just some tips:

- To make a trinary system, use the "binary" option in the lower left of the screen to give an object a companion, select the two objects (ctrl+click/drag), choose "balance momentum" to make it easier to center the camera, choose "create barycenter" and select the new barycenter between the objects, then select "binary" again and place the trinary companion in a far-flung orbit around the barycenter. Select everything, choose "make binary" and then "balance momentum" to smooth everything out, and then delete the barycenter if desired. Repeat the process for quadruple star systems or larger.

- Only use the "auto balance" toggle under the "binary" tab for the first two objects of the system, otherwise it throws off circumbinary orbits.

- Making a binary-binary is, from what I know, close to impossible with this binary-barycenter puzzle. You have to manually enter the velocities, which is something I haven't done yet.

- Make sure that your habitable planets have stable orbits within the habitable zones. Placing binary stars too close to one another can make the planets' orbits less stable over time.

- You can also place binary stars in a very close orbit and have the planets in circumbinary orbits.

- A properly habitable planet should have an atmospheric surface pressure of about 1 atm, a temperature of about 10 to 20 degrees C, an albedo of about 0.3, a magnetic field of about 0.25 gauss, and a water composition percentage of about 0.02%.

- Objects orbiting too close to a host object with high mass will break apart under the Roche limit, basically being ripped apart by intense gravity.

[im4space]

There was some more about this on an old thread at:

http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,2765.msg35710.html#msg35710

[Atgard]

JMBuilder, thanks for the tips, I will try those as I learn more and get more advanced in building systems!

im4space, thanks for linking that old thread! I see they found it to be quite a challenge... I tried downloading the 2 .ubox files there but I couldn't open them in US2, I guess they were made for US1 and may be incompatible?

[Gregory]

There's a thread about it made last year by me, and also made a sim about it that took 3 weeks:
http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,16515.0.html

Enjoy.