
Wolf 359 - ag8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_359
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FiatLuxDave
To me, the most interesting fact about Wolf 359 is its low surface
temperature. Wikipedia shows its surface temperature as 2800 Kelvin. Tungsten
melts at 3700 K, and graphite sublimates above 4000 K. What this means is that
you could make solid objects which could be in direct contact with the star
and remain intact despite the temperature.

Because Wolf 359 has a surface gravity of about 320 g's, if you made a buoyant
object (like a balloon), it would have a very strong restoring force. The
photosphere has a very low density, so this would be basically a vacuum
balloon. A vacuum balloon is much easier to make in a near vacuum than in a
thick atmosphere like Earth's. If it were large enough and floated high
enough, you would have the heat of the star on one side and the cold of space
on the other - a perfect location for a heat engine.

I started writing a sci-fi novel a few years ago, where the conversion of Wolf
359 into an energy source powering a future human civilization was a major
plot point. I chose Wolf 359 as the red dwarf because it is relatively close
to Earth and has a relatively low temperature. Unfortunately, I got stuck on
the dialogue for the love story plot, so I've never finished it.

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cdelsolar
320 g's? Wikipedia says 5.5 cgs which is 0.055 m/s^2 - much lower than
Earth's.. I think.

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loa_in_
That wouldn't hold any hot matter in place. It's in log g scale, which
apparently is log_10 of acceleration at equator but in cm/s².

Earth gravity is about 3 log g units, while this stars 5.5 gives two decimal
places (and half) more. Wolf 359 has between 100 and 1000 times stronger
surface gravity than Earth.

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jcims
“In combination with a lower rate of hydrogen consumption due to its low mass,
the convection will allow Wolf 359 to remain a main-sequence star for about
eight trillion years.”

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avmich
Awesome, and pretty competitive with white dwarfs :) .

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keyle
Sometimes I need a bit of context to understand why it's on HN. I mean sure,
it's a star, what makes it interesting?

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edu
Maybe due to Star Trek?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-0Jg6_zHu0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-0Jg6_zHu0)

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Symmetry
I associate it with the short story "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" that was a
Hugo finalist in 2007.

Text:
[http://redstonesciencefiction.com/2011/01/wolf359/](http://redstonesciencefiction.com/2011/01/wolf359/)

~~~
biesnecker
Thanks for that, it was a terrific read.

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thangalin
I rendered the relative size of Wolf 359 a long time ago:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star-
sizes.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star-sizes.jpg)

It's not much larger than Jupiter (in comparison to other stars).

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ag8
Fascinating! That's actually the image from which I first learned about this
star.

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skunkworker
Is this in relation to the arXiv article "Frequency of planets orbiting M
dwarfs in the Solar neighbourhood" published in June of 2019?

The quote from wikipedia.

"In June 2019 two candidate planets were reported in orbit around Wolf 359.
They were detected using the radial velocity method from observations with
HARPS in Chile and HIRES in Hawaii"

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TomMarius
Wow, I never realized the site of the Battle of Wolf 359 is a real place.

~~~
misnome
There is a certain subset of star systems that I will always associate with
and have a fondness for because of Freespace 2. And the phrase “Capella jump
node”.

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TeMPOraL
Dive! Dive! Dive! Hit your burners, pilot!

FreeSpace 2 will forever have a special place in my heart. The best space
fighter sim experience there ever was.

I hear that perhaps Elite: Dangerous is comparable, but from the videos of it
I've seen, it doesn't have that military sci-fi feel to it. I miss the
FreeSpace ambience, where you'd fly around in your fighter listening to the
chatter between capital ships as they duke it out. I'm sad there was never a
third part of the series; the storyline with the Shivans was excellent.

~~~
JohnBooty
It's not set in _space_ , but as a fellow Freespace 2 fan... the Ace Combat
series nails everything else that made Freespace 2 fun.

The AC series uses licensed real-world fighter jets but is set in a "near
future" Earth-like setting. So there are sci-fi elements like giant flying
aircraft carriers and enormous doomsday weapons such as giant railguns. The
plots are enjoyably goofy, full of drama and plot twists. _Lots_ of radio
banter.

The overall "realism vs. fun" balance very closely approximates the good old
spaceflight sims of yore like Freespace 2 and Tie Fighter.

AC7 is available on Windows as well as console, a first for the series. I put
about 100 hours into it, and needless to say I really loved it. AC6 (Xbox 360)
was great fun too; it may run on XBox One as well.

All AC games are all set in a shared fictional world ("Strangereal") but each
game is a story about a different war and has a unique set of characters. So
no worries about jumping into the series at some arbitrary random point;
you're not going to be missing out on any context.

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friendlybus
How do you get the license for real world jets?

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JohnBooty
It looks like Namco obtained licenses directly from the manufacturers. The
title screen has a big, dense list of licensing information regarding the
planes from Dassault, Boeing, and seemingly a million other manufacturers.

I'm not sure exactly what parts of the planes require licensing. Do you need
to pay to use their names? Their likenesses? Both? Neither? Maybe it's just a
courtesy? It's a good question. I'd love to know more myself.

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fnord77
used as a setting in many sci stories, not just st

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kleiba
Why?

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beardedwizard
Major Borg battle took place here. Have we forgotten already? ;)

~~~
kleiba
Mr. Worf... fire!

