- This episode of Because Space is
brought to you by the Outer Worlds.
We've all visualized fantastical worlds
described in books and on our screens.
But how would those descriptions impact the climate
and laws of physics in those imaginary places?
How would Frodo and his crew trek across Middle Earth
if the planet stayed true to the book's description?
Could a place like Tatooine, with it's
twin suns, really exist and support life?
(upbeat music)
Our very own Earth is not flat.
Let me repeat that for the people in the back.
The Earth is not flat.
On the other hand, Arda is.
For those of you who aren't into Lord of the Rings,
Middle Earth is situated on a planet named Arda.
While Middle Earth eventually became round,
which is a topic for a whole different conversation,
but in the flat days of Arda, what kind
of effect would it have on the inhabitants?
The first big issue is the magnetic field.
On our very own Earth, we rely on the molten iron
in the outer core to generate currents
of electricity due to convection.
Thus, locking in our sustained magnetic field.
This field protects our atmosphere
from being chipped away by the sun.
It acts as a shield against the solar winds
which, are charged particles being emitted by the sun,
which would otherwise, strip our
atmosphere molecule by molecule.
And, in turn, the magnetic field's existence keeps us alive.
In a flat configuration, you don't have
the ability to have a molten core.
Even a flat molten plane in the middle of Arda wouldn't
make sense because, in the early formative period,
gravity would want that to reassemble
into a sphere and not a plane.
That means if Middle Earth actually existed,
it would not have a core which could sustain
a magnetic field and thus, Frodo and his friends
would be in an uninhabitable, barren Middle Earth.
The Lord of the Rings would've been much
less interesting without the climactic
ring disposal in the molten lave within Mount Doom.
But if the planet was indeed flat,
even the iconic landscape couldn't exist.
On a flat world, there would be no plate tectonics
so you wouldn't have the ability to generate the friction
or the divergence of plates to generate a volcano.
No volcano means no molten lava for
the Ring to take it's final plunge.
Does that mean Sauron would've won?
Now that we've established a flat Arda
will have no magnetic field and no volcanic activity,
there's another huge component that will throw things off.
Gravity.
An interesting parallel would be to look at asteroids,
which come in all shapes and sizes, and could have
an aspect ratio that will allow us
to consider it as relatively, potato-like.
Not flat, but it's not a sphere.
Asteroids are challenging to explore for the scientists
who design landers and hoppers because the gravitational
field on the surface is both low and highly non-linear.
That means you could be on one part of the asteroid
and weigh ten pounds and move to another part
of the asteroid and weigh thirty pounds.
You can imagine gravity being this eerie
on a planet like Arda.
Since it is flat, the vector may point
to the center of the plane.
Which means, if you live towards the edge,
the gravity pulls much differently than at the center.
Gravity eventually will be pulling more horizontally
and plants would grow diagonally
and fruit will fall diagonally since they
will be inclined to follow the gravitational pull.
How do you like them apples?
Now that we've figured out how
Middle Earth works and my precious is safe,
let's switch gears to another fictitious
land in a galaxy far, far away.
Tatooine.
Can a planet like that really exist?
Why, yes.
Tatooine is the home planet to Anakin and Luke Skywalker
and was portrayed as a pretty inhospitable place
with no vegetation and water
sourced from atmospheric moisture.
There's a classic scene where Luke Skywalker
gazed upon the glory of the setting binary star system.
(dramatic music)
Binary star systems can either
be circumbinary or circumstellar.
Circumbinary means the distance between
the two stars, relative to the orbiting planet,
is small enough that the planet orbits both stars.
Circumstellar means the distance between
the two stars are larger so the planet orbits
only one of the stars in the system.
In either case, in a multiple star system,
as you orbit one or both stars,
since both stars have some gravitational influence,
whether big or small, it could create gravitational
instabilities as it navigates it's orbit.
So binary systems in general may not
be the ideal place you'd wanna live.
A circumbinary planet would have a day
and a night like we do on our own planet.
Since the suns will be closer relative
to the distance between them and the planet.
A circumstellar planet would have days and nights
that vary depending on where it is with respect to each sun.
If the suns were on opposite sides of the planet
for example, the entire planet will experience day time.
So when you look back on the Luke Skywalker
setting sun scene, you could see that with the relatively
same size of the stars and how closely they're positioned,
it appears that Tatooine is part of a circumbinary system.
There are binary star systems orbiting consistently
around one another to provide a stable,
hot, but stable, source of energy.
If Tatooine was far enough away, it could actually work.
Tatooine is slightly smaller than Earth at 10,465 kilometers
in diameter, and it's orbital period is 304 days.
Which means they don't have turkey or holidays.
With these inputs, and thanks to Kepler's laws,
in order to have an orbital period of 304 days,
Tatooine would be placed around
the same distance the Earth is from the Sun.
That means they did a pretty great job checking the math.
At the time that Star Wars was released,
that system lived only in the sci-fi worlds.
There have now been several discoveries by the Kepler
satellite that makes this depiction closer to a reality.
Kepler 16 is a binary star system in the constellation,
Cygnus, where both stars are separated by a .22 AU.
You could imagine that one star is where our sun is located
and the second star would split the distance
between our sun and Mercury.
These two stars orbit each other
and the planet Kepler 16b is .7 AU,
which puts it around where Venus is located.
It's a bit smaller but comparable to Saturn in size.
So it's pretty huge.
The chances of life on this planet is slim
but there still is much to be understood.
Now that we're all primed up with real life examples,
you can still enjoy Frodo's trek across Middle Earth
even though you know that the abnormal gravity fields
and lack of tectonic activity would
completely change the story line.
You could also sit back and enjoy that a planet
with two suns, like Tatooine, actually exists.
Thanks to missions such as Kepler
and the Hubble space telescope, the realm
of possibility for types of worlds is broadening.
Science fiction can turn into science fact.
Unless you think the Earth is flat,
no amount of science is gonna help you there.
Because Space!
Thanks again to The Outer Worlds for
sponsoring today's episode.
The Outer Worlds is a single player RPG
from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division.
Explore the edge of the galaxy by traveling
to the Halcyon Colony, where you'll be embroiled
in a vast, interstellar conspiracy.
And only you can decide everyone's fate.
The Outer Worlds is available now for PC, PS4, and XBOX One.
Welcome to the future! Try not to break it.
(upbeat music)