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vnangia7 karma
Which would you rather fight? One hundred cat-sized planets or one planet-sized cat?
vnangia2 karma
My (non-scientist) understanding is that while a passing star could set it up that way, it wouldn't keep them there. You'd still need something like 9 to keep them in those orbits.
vnangia2 karma
Thanks Konstantin. I keep wondering if its analogous to the gaps in Saturn's rings with shepherd worlds.
Wish I'd done astronomy or cosmology when I had the chance. Alas.
vnangia2 karma
Reading your paper, I didn't get a sense of whether 9 can explain the Kuiper Cliff. Can it? If not, what do you think is causing that, assuming it isn't observational bias?
vnangia7 karma
Given the distances involved, wouldn't we see significant differences in the atmosphere at perihelion and aphelion? I got the sense from an NH briefing that even Pluto has a much thicker atmosphere closer to the sun than at aphelion and unless 9 is generating a lot of heat internally, isn't it likely the atmosphere freezes and falls to the ground? Kind of like Vinge's on-off star, now that I think about it.
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