The Space Between

[Supplement Four]

Here's something interesting. I'm looking at Grand Survey, and I see a table (pg. 19) that shows the IISS Stellar Distances.

A "system" is considered to be 1.63 light years in diameter (half a parsec).

Anything past that distance (quarter parsec from the star), is considered "in between".

This is a "thing" that is not normally considered in Traveller. The maps, of course, lend one to believe that one star system just bumps up against the next.

But, really, there's a lot of "no-man's land" in between two star systems, even when the two stars lie in adjacent hexes on the map.

-S4

 

[Supplement Four]

Here's something interesting. I'm looking at Grand Survey, and I see a table (pg. 19) that shows the IISS Stellar Distances.

A "system" is considered to be 1.63 light years in diameter (half a parsec).

Anything past that distance (quarter parsec from the star), is considered "in between".

This is a "thing" that is not normally considered in Traveller. The maps, of course, lend one to believe that one star system just bumps up against the next.

But, really, there's a lot of "no-man's land" in between two star systems, even when the two stars lie in adjacent hexes on the map.

-S4

 

[Nick Nova]

Guess that's why they call it Space...

 

[Nick Nova]

Guess that's why they call it Space...

 

[flykiller]

space is big.

if our sun were the size of a large marble, earth would be 10 feet away from the sun, pluto would be 410 feet away, and the nearest star would be 526 miles distant.

they say when two galaxies collide, the stars themselves almost never make contact. the galaxies just breeze through each other, interacting gravitationally but not physically.

whole lotta nothing out there.

 

[flykiller]

space is big.

if our sun were the size of a large marble, earth would be 10 feet away from the sun, pluto would be 410 feet away, and the nearest star would be 526 miles distant.

they say when two galaxies collide, the stars themselves almost never make contact. the galaxies just breeze through each other, interacting gravitationally but not physically.

whole lotta nothing out there.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by flykiller:
they say when two galaxies collide, the stars themselves almost never make contact. the galaxies just breeze through each other, interacting gravitationally but not physically.

The Lensman series.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by flykiller:
they say when two galaxies collide, the stars themselves almost never make contact. the galaxies just breeze through each other, interacting gravitationally but not physically.

The Lensman series.

 

[atpollard]

The suns in star clusters can be much closer. Still mostly empty, just a lot more systems per parsec.

 

[atpollard]

The suns in star clusters can be much closer. Still mostly empty, just a lot more systems per parsec.

 

[The Shaman]

Originally posted by Supplement Four:
This is a "thing" that is not normally considered in Traveller. The maps, of course, lend one to believe that one star system just bumps up against the next.

But, really, there's a lot of "no-man's land" in between two star systems, even when the two stars lie in adjacent hexes on the map.

Yessir.

That 1.63 ly is a smidge more than 100,000 AU, marking the outer edge of the Oort Cloud. I've read that the Sun's gravitational influence relative to other stars actually extends a bit beyond that, about 125,000 AU or so, which still leaves a hella lotta space between stellar systems.

In our game I've added additional stars and brown dwarfs to many of the hexes - there really is no such thing as an "empty hex," only hexes with stars and other objects that are of limited intrinsic scientific and economic value. In hexes with inhabited star systems, the ones shown on your standard Traveller atlas, there are often additional stars "above" and "below" the two-dee representation of jump space, as well as objects threading their way between star systems.

I've also tossed the positions of a few wandering planets onto my star maps as well, though the discovery of such remains exceedingly rare. Stories told by ancient Scouts deep in their cups about wandering planets with vanished civilizations trapped beneath the ice that was once the planet's atmosphere make for a fun rumor encounter in a startown bar. . .

One of the criticisms I hear leveled at Charted Space is that there's nothing to explore without going far beyond the edge of the map. The space between provides an opportunity for a referee to drop an exploration scenario on the adventurers without ever leaving the friendly confines of the Third Imperium.

 

[The Shaman]

Originally posted by Supplement Four:
This is a "thing" that is not normally considered in Traveller. The maps, of course, lend one to believe that one star system just bumps up against the next.

But, really, there's a lot of "no-man's land" in between two star systems, even when the two stars lie in adjacent hexes on the map.

Yessir.

That 1.63 ly is a smidge more than 100,000 AU, marking the outer edge of the Oort Cloud. I've read that the Sun's gravitational influence relative to other stars actually extends a bit beyond that, about 125,000 AU or so, which still leaves a hella lotta space between stellar systems.

In our game I've added additional stars and brown dwarfs to many of the hexes - there really is no such thing as an "empty hex," only hexes with stars and other objects that are of limited intrinsic scientific and economic value. In hexes with inhabited star systems, the ones shown on your standard Traveller atlas, there are often additional stars "above" and "below" the two-dee representation of jump space, as well as objects threading their way between star systems.

I've also tossed the positions of a few wandering planets onto my star maps as well, though the discovery of such remains exceedingly rare. Stories told by ancient Scouts deep in their cups about wandering planets with vanished civilizations trapped beneath the ice that was once the planet's atmosphere make for a fun rumor encounter in a startown bar. . .

One of the criticisms I hear leveled at Charted Space is that there's nothing to explore without going far beyond the edge of the map. The space between provides an opportunity for a referee to drop an exploration scenario on the adventurers without ever leaving the friendly confines of the Third Imperium.

 

[Malenfant]

And funnily enough I wrote two JTAS articles about Brown Dwarfs and Interstellar Planets that cover exactly that, and also say that there's no such thing as an "empty hex" there because in practice they're going to have those objects in them (whether anyone knows about them or not is another matter though).

But of course the systems don't literally bump next to eachother - it's just a representation, like the stops on a subway map (the stars aren't really on the same plane either).

 

[Malenfant]

And funnily enough I wrote two JTAS articles about Brown Dwarfs and Interstellar Planets that cover exactly that, and also say that there's no such thing as an "empty hex" there because in practice they're going to have those objects in them (whether anyone knows about them or not is another matter though).

But of course the systems don't literally bump next to eachother - it's just a representation, like the stops on a subway map (the stars aren't really on the same plane either).