07-10-2015, 02:19 PM
Well, a quick gander at Wikipedia suggests that for circumbinary planets "theoretical calculations indicate the minimum stable separation is roughly two to three times the size of the stars' separation" with a citation from Scientific American in 2013. I've seen three times the orbital radius as a rule of thumb for circumbinary planets a couple places elsewhere, as well. The book What if the Earth Had Two Moons includes a scenario with an alternate Earth around a contact binary; the author is a professor of physics and astronomy. He did not think that tidal forces would render this impossible.
I'm not necessarily advocating for a garden world, since those are rare, but a planet that can support life and be a terraforming candidate, that seems plausible.
On a more whimsical note, I'd like to suggest "Horus" as a possible name for the contact binary. If it's in the Solar Dominion, that'd fit their preferences, a contact binary has a vaguely "eye of Horus" look (at least to my mind), and a quick look at the EG shows that it appears not to have been used yet. Conveniently, Egypt has at least three other sun gods I can think of: Ra (or Re), Amun (or Amon) and Aten. Since Amun and Ra are sometimes joined, maybe the separate binary stars could be Amun and Ra, and the fifth star could be Aten.
I'm not necessarily advocating for a garden world, since those are rare, but a planet that can support life and be a terraforming candidate, that seems plausible.
On a more whimsical note, I'd like to suggest "Horus" as a possible name for the contact binary. If it's in the Solar Dominion, that'd fit their preferences, a contact binary has a vaguely "eye of Horus" look (at least to my mind), and a quick look at the EG shows that it appears not to have been used yet. Conveniently, Egypt has at least three other sun gods I can think of: Ra (or Re), Amun (or Amon) and Aten. Since Amun and Ra are sometimes joined, maybe the separate binary stars could be Amun and Ra, and the fifth star could be Aten.