A star system with more than two stars is usually referred to as a cluster. In the case of only 3 stars it's an open cluster. The orbits of the stars are around their shared center of mass. However, as the stars are in orbit around each other this center is difficult to predict.
Planets in a star cluster are difficult to predict since the stars would tend to consume or gravity boost out anything smaller than they are.
tl;dr I have NO IDEA what a trinary star system would end up looking like much less what life would be like.
Queen of Neith
Actually, it is not an open cluster but a extrasolar system composed of three suns at the center. The three suns are arranged like clockwork, similar to the three suns in the The Dark Crystal.
The centre star is the Biru. Gelb orbits clockwise around Biru. Aka orbits anticlockwise around Biru. Together, they form the triple star system of Lyona. To simplify the positions of the sun, there is Hierarchy of the Suns:
The Akagelbiru system consists of dozens of planets orbiting it, divided to Inner Rim, Middle Rim and Outer Rim. The Goldilocks zone is mostly located in the Middle Rim where it is composed of three rocky planets and one gas giant with moons.
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Astronomy related question here. Which direction relative to Biru's orbital plane does Lyona orbit? Anti-clockwise (like the planets of our Solar System) or clockwise (like that of Gelb)?
Because while not impossible (it simply implies the odd one out is either a captured star or simple orbital shenanigans ensued that Gelb and Biru are actually albeit subtly orbiting each other via common center of mass).
Also, what kind of distances are we talking about here? Because take the Alpha Centauri star system (including Proxima), if you had a planet around any of the three, the other two would simply be very bright stars at night at closest with a relatively insignificant effect in terms of nighttime darkness. (For example, a planet around Alpha Centauri A would see Alpha Centauri B as far less bright and illuminating than the full moon is here on its closest approaches. Not even visible during daylight. It would just be a star that moves through the night sky like a bright planet does. (Proxima Centauri would be similar. An unusual star in the night sky, not a perpetrator of Perpetual Daylight.)
edited 16th May '18 5:46:25 AM by MajorTom
Lost in Space
The basic problem is that a trinary system with all three stars near the center of mass of the whole arrangement is fantastically unstable, and the orbits of its planets would be pretty nuts as well. Systems like that usually end up flinging extra stars and planets out into interstellar space, leaving just a binary at the center. Most trinary systems involve a binary at the center of mass and a third star (or sometimes second pair) orbiting way out at dozens of AUs.
Also, if you have a blue giant, its luminosity (and gravity) will utterly dominate the other two stars, making them basically insignificant. The giant will determine the Goldilocks zone of the system, which will be at a much larger radius than in our solar system. I lack the geometry skills to do a napkin calculation, but with a bit of science you could determine the radius and width of that zone and from there the angular size of the stars in the sky of planets in that zone.
Worth noting is that blue supergiants live and die very quickly: on the order of tens of millions of years compared to the ten billion years of main sequence stars. That's not enough time for life to evolve on any planets orbiting that star. Hell, long before the planets had even finished cooling from their formation period, the thing would go supernova and scour them bare of anything resembling a potential biosphere.
Could life evolve in a trinary system with a neutron star and two others? Maaaaaaybe. It would certainly be a weird situation, especially as the planets would have to somehow reacquire atmospheres after having them blown off in the supernova, and the neutron star would be bathing the whole system in a constant flux of x-rays.
The skies of that system would be absolutely breathtaking, though. The supernova would create a nebula which the energy of the other stars would light up, making for a display so brilliant that it might keep any planets from experiencing true night.
edited 16th May '18 6:03:10 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Queen of Neith
Now, when I imagined that star system, I knew blue supergiants are very, very short lived. Still, I picked it because it looked nice and goes the three color motif of red, blue and yellow. Also, answering the poster's question of Lyona orbit, the planet orbits clockwise.
Anyways, let's get to the alien alien biomes of Lyona. This is the first biome I've created for an alien planet.
- Volcanic deserts
In dry, hot volcanic deserts of the Yellow Springs lie a system of volcanoes underneath. The place is mostly its like the Australian Outback with the volcanism of Yellowstone National Park. It has variety of cylindrical rock formations formed from the remains of previous eruptions and sandstone erosion bynwind. Vents spew out volcanic gases and light lava out of it.
Plants grow around the vents and hot springs containing water. The plants growing in the Yellow Springs are prickly, clubmoss-like plants named Toged. Around the flat rocky plains are shrubs and small trees growing around, waiting for a wildfire ignited by the ember of volcanic fire.
edited 16th May '18 6:05:42 AM by Huthman
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Lost in Space
Fine, if you want to ignore the astrophysics... I'm not sure that the other partners of the supergiant would even be visible in daytime given how dominant the giant's luminosity would be. You're talking thousands of times brighter than its partners, and many times larger in radius as well.
As the system would by necessity be very young, you'd expect that the remnants of the planetary nebula that formed the stars would still be around, and fill the sky with a brilliant display as the blue giant's energy lit it up. You'd also expect a ton of collisions — constant bombardment from asteroids, meteors, and comets due to the fact that the planets wouldn't have had time to sweep it all up yet.
edited 16th May '18 6:14:58 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Queen of Neith
Okay, I think I need to fix the blue giant problem pronto. Actually in scientific terms, the Akagelbiru suns can be classified into the stellar classification.
- Aka is a Class M star, called red dwarfs.
- Gelb is a Class G star, called main sequence star.
- Biru is a Class A star, rarely called a blue dwarf.
Now, can we get to the biosphere speculative science of Lyonan lifeforms.
The high oxygen content of the atmosphere as well with the prescence of Pleorma Fog (Power crystal/Coronium vapor) causes flora and fauna to fluorish in many strange ways. Here is a few examples from the seas and land.
- Brurmaccul: A bulky monstrous, reptillian creature which resembles a Brumak. They live along the forested shores of the Torkhouria, consuming most bamboo and tree foilage along the coast. Whenever they see a Adang on the shoreline, they gather to kill and eat up the Adang with their own claws and stone hurling.
- Adang: A shrimp-like creature that grows to the length of a bus. They prey on starfish and other bottom dwelling animals and cosume sea plants and algae. They have long claws to catch prey, leading to dangerous encounters with the migrating Miki-Tiki (Islander) sub-race of Lyonans during the Great Migration Period.
Most trinary systems will have a central large star and then a pair of smaller stars. [1]
The solar cycle on the planet will depend on whether it passes between or outside of the stars.
- Aka is a Class M star, called red dwarfs.
- Gelb is a Class G star, called main sequence star.
- Biru is a Class A star, rarely called a blue dwarf.
Okay. Terminology lesson. M, G, A etc are what's called a spectral class. This is determined by the star's surface temperature and gives it the characteristic "colour" description. Red for M and similarly cool stars, orange for K, Yellow for G, Yellow-White for F, Blue for A, Blue-White for O and B. Specific stars will also have an Arabic Numeral after them to designate exactly where in that range they fall, but that's not as important in the particular case. (Our sun is G2 if you want to be precise).
A full classification will also have a roman numeral after them from I to V (or VII, there are some variations in notation for VI and VII). This is a luminosity class. Any star in class V (our Sun's class for the record) are classified as main sequence, also known as dwarfs (white dwarfs are something else entirely and are class VII or prefixed with a D). These are stars in the main, longest part of their lives. Apart from extremely old and bright sub-giants that are technically still on the main sequence, anything any type of giant, from the majority of sub-giants, to hypergiants, is a star that's already dying.
But you've still got a problem. Class A is where stellar life spans start getting... short. Measured in the hundreds of millions of years, maybe a billion or two if you're lucky and that's a problem. Life on Earth to three billion years to achieve multi-cellularity. You're extremely unlikely to get large, multi-cellular life in the water, let alone on land before the entire planet is reduced to a scorched, uninhabitable cinder. And if you're thinking about afterwards, assuming the planet somehow withstands the big star taking multiple trips through the giant phases, you've got the the other stellar partners too close. They're going get swallowed up by the main partner's first trip up the giant track (at which point things get weird) but even if they somehow survive they're going to get torn apart in the inevitable supernova.
What would life look like in this system. Single celled. And then dead.
Queen of Neith
Lyona's solar cycle revolves around Akagelbiru. The question is, what would be the radius of the Goldilocks zone of Akagelbiru resemble. Additionally, how many days it would take for Lyona to take a complete orbit.
But let's get to another point shall we?
Coronium is a element that is found in Lyona. Its anomalous properties cause strange mutations and effects on Lyonan lifeforms. Coronium is called Pleorma. The element is extremely volatile whenever it changes forma. It main stable forms is Crystal, Emulsion, Metalloid and Fog.
In crystal form, Coronium appears to have many colors and shapes. It can take in forms of ores and washes up on the surface. Underneath Lyona's surface, lies a desposits of Coronium Emulsion that forms pools and large lakes. The crystals can be very large and form different kinds of shapes similar to the jewels found on Earth.
Addendum:
Wow, stellar science sure it's weird. I can't resort to alien space bats or aliens modifying the world. This thread was originally a hypothetical extraterrestrial biosphere discussion, not Reality Ensues thread.
Maybe I've should have substituted Biru with an F-type main sequence star. Nevermind, let's just get to the discussion for life evolving on a trinary star systems
edited 16th May '18 4:59:25 PM by Huthman
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Coronium would probably be a mineral, rather than an element. Elements are substances made up of just one type of atom, they're what's classified on the periodic table.
Life would either evolve to be unharmed by it, or avoid it. Mutations imply radioactivity or poisonous chemicals, so I think most organisms would be staying as far away from it as possible. Since it spreads as a gas or a liquid, I'd imagine that means high ground would be the "safest" area for life to evolve, and you might see the traits associated with organisms that live in mountainous areas on Earth.
They should have sent a poet.
Queen of Neith
Effects of Coronium in Lyonan biosphere
In primordial Lyona, most of the Coronium was locked up in the crust of Lyona, 5 kilometers underneath. Over time, the Coronium formae slowly crept up the crust as geological action pushed the Coronium upwards.
Deposits of Coronium slowly aggregated around themselves, a normal behavior of the element and concentrated around caverns and underground seas underneath Lyona. During that time, life on Lyona is extremely primitive.
Cracks on the surface caused small concentrations of Coronium Crystals and Fog to enter the surface, slowly saturating the atmosphere with the Fog. The mutagenic properties of Coronium caused several primitive plants and animals to evolve quicker than usual due to exposure to the crystals and the fog.
In Prehistoric Lyona, 350 Million years ago, a massive tectonic shift between the ancient supercontinents caused a eruption of Coronium into the surface. Geysers of Coronium Emulsion spread droplets of Coronium into the surface, crystals of Coronium jutting out of the surface, ores of Coronium arriving into rivers and seas.
The Coronium Catastrophe caused a mass-extinction event that wiped out 89.6% of lifeforms on Lyona. As said before, Coronium is a mutagen. The surviving population of lifeforms underwent a mass-mutation that made lifeforms develop strange adaptations. The most common evolutionary trait was the radiation resistance that allowed some form of radiation protection.
edited 16th May '18 6:28:52 PM by Huthman
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I definitely think you'd see life congregating around higher elevations, in that case. Mutations from chemical exposure are very rarely beneficial, and on top of that the chemical exposure itself is typically dangerous in some other way.
They should have sent a poet.
This sounds an awful lot like the aliens homesystem in the novel "Three Body Problem" by Liu Cixin. The alien's homeplanet orbits all three stars in a complex trajectory that is never the same twice and can last thousands of years. It has a profound impact on the way life and culture evolved on that planet.
Queen of Neith
Admittedly, I did think about that novel. Anyways, planet Lyona has a normal orbit around the Akagelbiru suns.
Think of it, I'll have to introduce the dominant species of Lyona, the titular Lyonans.
Lyonans are the dominant species on Lyona. They are similar to humans in every way except they require higher concentrations of oxygen to breathe comfortably, have higher levels of strength, regeneration and intelligence, have blue, green and pink hair and have an advanced civilization.
Lyonans represent the apex predator of their own planet. They originated as hominid-like creatures, exposed to the emanations of the Coronium forma and caused a paradigm shift in evolution. Since then, the Lyonans expanded and migrated into many lands, divided into races and subraces around the planet.
Lyonans are an advanced and superior species. They have technology During ancient times, a Linto boy named Luuc discovered that the Pleorma (Coronium in Ancient Lyonan) have properties which can power and create portals.
The Linto race created a portal network around Lyona called the Amala (Ancient Lyonan: Portal). This invention caused a trade network around the world. They exchanged technologies, knowledge and materials which created a scientific revolution in Lyona.
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Depending on exactly where in the A class your star falls. Stellar luminosity ranges from 1.5 times Sol for an A9, up to a whopping 5 suns worth at the A0 end. At the low end the approximately 1 solar luminosity is going to count for something. (The red dwarf is rounding error).
So at the low end, that's a combined luminosity of 2.5 Sols. Since actually insolation (the amount of sunlight received) goes as inversely proportional to the square of the radius, that means to get approximately the same amount of solar energy as Earth (if that's what you're going for) is going to be approximately 1.6 AU (the average distance between Earth and Sol). At the top end that 6 times the amount of light of the sun so you're looking about 2.5 AU.
This is only assuming something fully analogous to Earth. Thicker atmospheres with higher C02 content can keep their planet warm at greater distances, while thinner atmospheres might want to be a little closer in because they lose more heat to space.
Probably.
The scientist's answer: probably single-celled, provided life can exist there.
The writer's answer: native-evolved life or artificially adapted life?
Introduction:
This is a collective speculative biology and science of alien life discussion. The main purpose of the thread is to imagine and speculate extraterrestrial life on a hypothetical planet called Lyona. Anyone can discuss and contribute to the thread,
Lyona is a exoplanet orbiting three suns. The suns are called the Akagelbiru which in Ancient Lyonan means Trinity. The Akagelbiru consists of three suns:
Lyona orbits the Goldilocks zone of the Akagelbiru star system that allows life to thrive in the planet's surface and support an Earth-like world.
Planetology of Lyona /// Lyona is an Earth-like planet located in Akagelbiru's Goldilocks zone. The mass of Lyona is slightly larger than Earth, mostly 1.5 times larger than Earth. The planet contains liquid water and elements enough for life and advanced civilizations to exist.
The atmosphere of Lyona is similar to Earth, but has higher concentrations of oxygen in its atmosphere that composes up to 35.5 percent of the atmosphere with trace gases of fluorine, neon, cyanide and Coronium-based gases instead of argon and noble gases. The atmosphere is extremely dense fitting for a planet of its own size.
The biosphere of Lyona is extremely diverse, ranging from normal biomes such as forests, deserts and oceans to weird, alien often fantastical extreme biomes such as volcanic deserts, tidelands, extreme highlands, floating rocks and other biomes not found on planet Earth.
Lyona is unique for having four moons with breathable atmospheres that orbit it and a ring system composed of debris from shattered primordial moons and dwarf planets with captured asteroids. Together, they are known as the Mamboria (Ancient Lyonan: Four Lords of the Firmament).
The dominant species on Lyona is called the titular Lyonans (Ancient Lyonan: People). Their biology and physiology are similar to humans, almost resembling them except they have no philtrum, they have blue or green hair, higher strength level and they require higher amounts of oxygen to breathe.
The planet's main element is the polymorphic Coronium or in Ancient Lyonan is called the Pleorma (Power crystal). Its main forma (Matter state) is a crystal that enamates anomalous energies. The crystals can be harnessed to provide plentiful amounts of energy, superconductor properties and all-round material with every use. The crystals can jut out of the soil or by any form of arrival to the surface by ores and shards.
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