Newsgroups: From: (Steve Hutchison) Subject: Re: ADMIN: The Nexus System Message-ID: References: <25ttff$> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1993 16:08:08 GMT (Rick Jones) writes: >Proposal for the Nexus Solar System: >Size and Shape: Nexus is a spherical planet about the same size and >distance from the sun as Earth. The Sun is a star, just like the Earth's >sun. Fine, as long as the sun and the stars are also manifestations in the physical world of a more magical reality. Which leads one to the next point: the moons and planets are the representations of other gods and (as in _every_ human culture) should be named for them in any system of nomenclature where tradition is preserved. >Moons: Nexus has three moons, Primus, Secondus and Tertius. Primus is a >large white airless sphere, similar to the Earth's moon in shape, >appearance, and period. Secondus is a much smaller sphere, which orbits >Primus in an orbit perpendicular Nexus' orbital plane. Tertius is an >irregular rock even smaller than Secondus. Tertius trails Primus in it's >orbital plane around 6 hours behind it. (During the day, the Sun obscures >Tertius.) Astronomers believe that Tertius is a piece of space junk, >perhaps a comet, that was caught in Nexus' gravitation pull. I expect it would take careful observation to realize that Tertius is even there -- and Secundus is clearly an artificial object, or was put there by magic. Otherwise it would be perturbed out of the orbit you describe in about 5000 years tops... >Other Planets/Celestial Features: Now these names are cool - called after the gods of orbital mechanics... >Galler: A large planet with over ten moons, the largest, Copern, an >Earth-like moon. (Jupiter) >Kepleo: A large planet farther out from the sun than Nexus. It's much more >massive, has a series of rings, and many small moons. It's atmosphere is >primarily methane with some other nasty bits. (essentially, Saturn) >Other suggestions I heard were for a Desert Planet and a Cloud-Covered >Science-Fiction Venus. >Any suggestions? >I'm volunteering to be the Royal Astronomer of Nexus, so once this gets >hammered out, I'll post it semi-regularly. OK... Where is Nexus in its Galaxy? Is the whole plane as promiscuous as Nexus in terms of allowing gateways? How big and old is the Galaxy? What do the skies look like at night?