austenandrews Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Recently the press touched on the idea again that a hidden gas giant, nicknamed Tyche, may exist in the Oort cloud. My impression is that this is a pretty farfetched concept. My questions are (a) how farfetched is it, and why? and ( if such a planet did exist, what would it be like and how would it differ from known gas giants? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Re: Tyche I think it depends on how you'd utilize it ... It'd be a great concept for a Transhuman campaign where Tyche may be a large mining facility, or maybe the source of some problems. It would also do well in a sci-fi/pulp mash up as a planet for the main opposition (aka Mongo). Maybe it's a planet that exists in two universes and makes bridging universes possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 Re: Tyche ... Or the real Yuggoth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Re: Tyche Well one thing is that the Orbit of Tyche should be fairly clear of oort cloud bodies. Large gas giants tend to act as hoovers for system debris. If we were using Traveller's Jump drive, ie an FTL drive that malfunction within 100 planetary diameters. It would make Jump Navigation pretty difficult. Depending on where it is in it's orbit, it could prevent jump travel to a decent part of the System (Though I haven't done any math to compare how large it's jump Mask is (jump mask is the 100dia no go zone) and how that interacts with other bodies in the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Re: Tyche If we were using Traveller's Jump drive, ie an FTL drive that malfunction within 100 planetary diameters. It would make Jump Navigation pretty difficult. Depending on where it is in it's orbit, it could prevent jump travel to a decent part of the System (Though I haven't done any math to compare how large it's jump Mask is (jump mask is the 100dia no go zone) and how that interacts with other bodies in the system. That could explain why Earth hasn't had a true First Contact experience ... might be fuel for some sci-fi or conspiracy games Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Re: Tyche Well one thing is that the Orbit of Tyche should be fairly clear of oort cloud bodies. Large gas giants tend to act as hoovers for system debris. If we were using Traveller's Jump drive, ie an FTL drive that malfunction within 100 planetary diameters. It would make Jump Navigation pretty difficult. Depending on where it is in it's orbit, it could prevent jump travel to a decent part of the System (Though I haven't done any math to compare how large it's jump Mask is (jump mask is the 100dia no go zone) and how that interacts with other bodies in the system. Assuming it's both far enough out there and not large enough to have been spotted yet, its jump masking effect on the rest of the system is most likely negligible. Regardless of mass, gas giants don't get much larger than Jupiter in terms of diameter. So I'll go with that for now: 100x Jupiter's diameter is approx. 14 million km; that's not quite a tenth of an AU. But it's orbiting well beyond Pluto, which is at least 40AU. But we know it's farther out than that because it hasn't eaten Pluto, so call it 50AU. An object arriving from outside the Solar System would have 1 chance in a million of coming within 100 diameters of it. And the odds get lower as you go farther out. Space is big. Feel free to double check my math and please let me know if I goofed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Re: Tyche For reality, I don't think Tyche is actually there, though I don't find the hypothesis nearly as far-fetched as some. It could be there after all. Story-wise, well, I think Marcus has the best idea: ... Or the real Yuggoth.What a fun guy you are! (Get it?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Re: Tyche To my mind, Tyche occupies the same Solar System that contains planet Vulcan, Venus' moon Neith, Saturn's moon Chiron and Themis, the planet Phaeton (or possbly Planet V or the Fifth Planet) and Planet X. This is a distinct Solar System from the more fun one usually shown in movies and on TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Re: Tyche If they're serious about it being in the Oort Cloud, that's way out there ... 20,000 AU out, a tenth of a parsec away. The Kuiper Belt is the 50 to 150 AU region, and a Jupiter-mass object there would have been found long ago. (Also, we know enough about the dynamics of the KB that it's clear no such large object is there.) I'll read the initial paper and see what they say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austenandrews Posted February 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 Re: Tyche Right, something that big in the Kuiper Belt would surely have been detected ages ago. But the existence of the Oort Cloud itself is only theoretical, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 Re: Tyche Failed Brown Dwarf binary mate to Sol? Could that be far enough out, and producing little enough on the IR and XRay to have remained undetected? I'm of the opinion there could very likely be at least a few more objects nearby us that haven't yet been confirmed, but I'm not exactly convinced in regards to Tyche. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midas Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Re: Tyche Failed Brown Dwarf binary mate to Sol? Could that be far enough out, and producing little enough on the IR and XRay to have remained undetected? I'm of the opinion there could very likely be at least a few more objects nearby us that haven't yet been confirmed, but I'm not exactly convinced in regards to Tyche. That's pretty much the Nemesis Theory (a brown dwarf in a cometary orbit around Sol), which TPTB debunked a decade or so ago. Interesting that it has made a comeback. Midas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Re: Tyche That's pretty much the Nemesis Theory (a brown dwarf in a cometary orbit around Sol), which TPTB debunked a decade or so ago. Interesting that it has made a comeback. Midas Of course Tyche isn't in Cometary Orbit (if it exists), but is in a circular orbit around the sun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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