Mega-Planetary Rings

[Ithuriel]

Depending on the requirements such a ship might navigate the rings physically. It could be fitted with long (multi-kilometre) tentacles that reach out and push/pull off of larger chunks for motion.

There are several references to 'kraken' in the EG, space-adapted bioborg squid of kilometre scale. They don't have their own article yet, but this sounds like the sort of thing they might be found doing.

[sandcastles]

The article on antimatter production cites ring systems as a place where antimatter can be produced. Wouldn't this mega-ring be valuable for that?
Is anybody going to write an article on J1407's history in OA?

[stevebowers]

If you feel inspired to do so, feel free. Antimatter is created in a gas giant's magnetic frobabkly occupies a different location to the ring system. If the antimatter drifted towards the rings it would annihilate with the normal matter ices, so the best place to look for it would be well above or below the ring plane.

[stevebowers]

I didn't realise quite how big the rings were around J1407b. Not sure they'd have all those stripes - unless the ring system is slowly accreting into several large moons.

[Cray]

I didn't realise quite how big the rings were around J1407b. Not sure they'd have all those stripes - unless the ring system is slowly accreting into several large moons.

Wiki says there's at least one sizable moon, accounting for a large gap 61 million kilometers from the planet / brown dwarf. Several other noted gaps are attributed to smaller moons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1SWASP_J14...3-394542.6

The system is very young, so there's a suspicion that this is a protoplanetary disk rather than a long-lived ring system.

Does this system exist in OA yet? I might make it a noted home for the Jotunn.

[stevebowers]

No, it doesn't, and that is a very good idea.

[JamesRogers]

It would be interesting to have a write-up of this planet's rings as like a really diverse setting, with many cultures of Jotunn, and similar classes. Maybe even the vex Machina Babbengensii could have a large presence here?

[Cray]

Maybe even the vex Machina Babbengensii could have a large presence here?

Good idea.

[stevebowers]

Following up on this story, ten years later; the 'very large ring system' hypothesis doesn't look realistic any more, and it might instead be some sort of free-floating disk or object that passed by the star by coincidence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J1407b

While the properties of the ALMA object appear to match those of J1407b, it has only been observed once, making it uncertain whether its motion aligns with the expected direction and speed.[1]: 5  It is possible that the ALMA object could be a stationary background galaxy or a spurious detection caused by image noise, although these two possibilities are considered unlikely.[1]: 5  ALMA reobserved V1400 Centauri in June and July 2024, which may provide insight into the object's nature once the data is analyzed and published.

In some ways it is a good thing that we did not include this object, (IIRC).

[MiyuwiAuthor]

That doesn't mean we can't include GAIA21bcv b: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.38...ad1931/pdf


4,508 ly away! (Within Terragen Sphere)