For Fun and Science: The Biology, Ecology and Geology of Tatooine

[Potoooooooo]

http://observationdeck.io9.com/for-...gy-ecology-and-geology-o-1611670077/+riamisra

Seven science bloggers took a crack at Star Wars' planet Tatooine last week, exploring real-life issues like megafauna, apex predators, water cycles and evolution through the lens of the desert world featured in 5 out of 6 Star Wars films.

You won't find any joyless nitpicking in these pieces. Instead, the authors lovingly explore the fictional world to write about bigger issues in science, as an introduction to concepts that carry over to our own planet. The results are really fun.

 

[credoconsolans]

I always wondered about the dangers of radiation from two suns.

 

[Potoooooooo]

 

[credoconsolans]

OK, that really made me

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I always wondered about the dangers of radiation from two suns.

I would actually expect *LESS* radiation.

Most of the radiation on Earth is from radioactivity and cosmic rays, not the sun. The only substantial radiation from the sun that gets to us is UV.

The total energy that reaches Tatoonie is going to be reasonably close to what reaches Earth because the temperature is similar. Either the stars are farther away or they are smaller. Thus what we care about is the percentage of the starlight that's UV--and that's determined by the surface temperature of the star(s).

Tatoonie's stars look cooler than our sun. Thus less UV.

 

[Potoooooooo]

OK, that really made me

Well, how about some nude pix of Jar Jar Binx

 

[bilby]

I always wondered about the dangers of radiation from two suns.

I would actually expect *LESS* radiation.

Most of the radiation on Earth is from radioactivity and cosmic rays, not the sun. The only substantial radiation from the sun that gets to us is UV.

The total energy that reaches Tatoonie is going to be reasonably close to what reaches Earth because the temperature is similar. Either the stars are farther away or they are smaller. Thus what we care about is the percentage of the starlight that's UV--and that's determined by the surface temperature of the star(s).

Tatoonie's stars look cooler than our sun. Thus less UV.

White objects on Tatooine look white. Therefore the primary light source(s) must be roughly the same temperature as our sun. Both stars are certainly F or G class, and probably damn close to G0.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

OK, that really made me

Well, how about some nude pix of Jar Jar Binx

Nuke from orbit!

- - - Updated - - -

I would actually expect *LESS* radiation.

Most of the radiation on Earth is from radioactivity and cosmic rays, not the sun. The only substantial radiation from the sun that gets to us is UV.

The total energy that reaches Tatoonie is going to be reasonably close to what reaches Earth because the temperature is similar. Either the stars are farther away or they are smaller. Thus what we care about is the percentage of the starlight that's UV--and that's determined by the surface temperature of the star(s).

Tatoonie's stars look cooler than our sun. Thus less UV.

White objects on Tatooine look white. Therefore the primary light source(s) must be roughly the same temperature as our sun. Both stars are certainly F or G class, and probably damn close to G0.

But they certainly seem cooler when we see them in the sky. Maybe something is messing with the colors. (Or maybe they didn't hire an astronomer to check their worlds.)

 

[bilby]

Well, how about some nude pix of Jar Jar Binx

Nuke from orbit!

- - - Updated - - -

I would actually expect *LESS* radiation.

Most of the radiation on Earth is from radioactivity and cosmic rays, not the sun. The only substantial radiation from the sun that gets to us is UV.

The total energy that reaches Tatoonie is going to be reasonably close to what reaches Earth because the temperature is similar. Either the stars are farther away or they are smaller. Thus what we care about is the percentage of the starlight that's UV--and that's determined by the surface temperature of the star(s).

Tatoonie's stars look cooler than our sun. Thus less UV.

White objects on Tatooine look white. Therefore the primary light source(s) must be roughly the same temperature as our sun. Both stars are certainly F or G class, and probably damn close to G0.

But they certainly seem cooler when we see them in the sky. Maybe something is messing with the colors. (Or maybe they didn't hire an astronomer to check their worlds.)

The only shots I recall of the suns are of them close to the horizon; Our sun looks redder/cooler when close to the horizon too, but that is an atmospheric effect, rather than an actual characteristic of the star itself. On Tatooine, there is presumably a lot of dust in the atmosphere, so it is not particularly surprising if scattering effects are more pronounced, and visible at higher declinations, than they are on Earth.

 

[thebeave]

Is it even possible to have life on a planet in a binary star system like Tatooine? It would seem the temperature swings would be horrendous.

 

[dystopian]

OK, that really made me

Well, how about some nude pix of Jar Jar Binx

Where's the reproductive appendages? 0/10 would not watch again.

 

[dystopian]

Is it even possible to have life on a planet in a binary star system like Tatooine? It would seem the temperature swings would be horrendous.

Depends on the particular configuration of the system. AFAIK, most binary stars orbit very closely to each other, so for planets orbiting them the effect is really as if they're orbiting around a single star, and there shouldn't be any dramatic temperature/radiation variances. It gets more complicated when you get to trinary systems; though in some trinary systems (like Alpha Centauri), the third star may be so far away that its effects are pretty minimal. And that's to say nothing of septenary systems (that is, systems with 7 stars gravitationally bound to each other), of which we know 2 to exist.

Solar systems will naturally evolve towards a stable configuration however, no matter how many stars it contains, and I doubt that it's very stable for a system with multiple stars and planets to have them spaced out in a way that would produce these kinds of temperature variances you're talking about. Either the stars are going to orbit very closely to each other with planets orbiting the pair much like we orbit the sun; or they're going to be orbiting each other at tens of thousands of AU's, with planets then orbiting the separate stars; thereby minimizing the influence of the star the planet is not orbiting around.

 

[Potoooooooo]

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...aways+of+Endor.docx+&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

and here is a little something on the anthropology of Endor

 

[dystopian]

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...aways+of+Endor.docx+&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

and here is a little something on the anthropology of Endor

With the ewoks expression like that, I can't help but see this instead;

 

[Potoooooooo]

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...aways+of+Endor.docx+&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

and here is a little something on the anthropology of Endor

With the ewoks expression like that, I can't help but see this instead;

How could anyone think there was anything creepy about bears

 

[Potoooooooo]