Now the previous episode was less about gathering data than the episodes prior but I think it would make for good watching, we have a new crew member - Noko, an alien who has just been introduced to the crew at the end of the last episode and the ship is still orbiting around the blue supergiant Rigel, which we will get the facts about in this episode.
Episode 6 Synopsis:
Noko is stood beside the captain on the bridge, in front of the rest of the crew with his arm outstretched to greet them. He notices the crew's caution and assures them he means them no harm, and slowly they each shake his hand. With the formal introduction out of the way the captain asks SAI about Rigel, which they are currently orbiting. SAI explains that the star is a blue supergiant, one of the most powerful stars in the galaxy, which has fully charged the ship extremely quickly, which Noko mentions is the reason they were transported here, while on the topic he also informs the captain that he is capable of making several upgrades to the ship that will increase the amount of energy it can store considerably. Surprised but eager to avoid any situations like at the neutron star the captain gives permission, but instructs the ship engineer to oversee the upgrades. Noko agrees and he and the engineer leave the bridge. SAI informs the captain that there are 2 more stars in the system relatively close and after the captains confirmation the ship makes the quick jump there, SAI positions the ship right in the center of their mutual orbit, and the 2 blue stars are clearly visible on either side of the ship and SAI relays the results of her scans to the captain. The engineer hails the bridge and excitedly explains that Noko has already doubled the energy capacity of the ship with a simple reprogramming. SAI confirms this, and also states that the 2 stars have already charged the ship to the new capacity. "Excellent" replies the captain, "let's test out this new technology shall we? SAI, take us to the farthest safe star for energy gathering". The engines power up and the ship blasts off from between the 2 stars.
Research:
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| Rigel is the bright star in the center of the screen, it is the 'left foot' of the constellation Orion (as Orion is facing towards us). |
Rigel is the brightest star in the Orion constellation, brighter even than Betelgeuse (usually). Rigel is a blue supergiant 17 times the size of our sun, and an astonishing 60,000 times the luminosity! It is the most powerful star in the 'local' region of our Milky Way Galaxy. The closest more powerful star is Naos, which is 1100 lightyears away.
Blue supergiants are some of the most powerful stars in the universe, as large stars tend to be cooler and dimmer. Blue supergiants have surface temperatures up to 50,000K, they are usually considerably smaller than red supergiants.
Rigel is so bright that at 1AU any object would be immediately vapourized and destroyed by stellar winds.
The name 'Rigel' is a contraction of the Arabic "Riǧl Ǧawza al-Yusra" meaning "left foot of the central one".
Rigel is actually almost 250 parsecs away (almost 800 lightyears), and is the 6th brightest star in the night sky.
Rigel is confirmed to be part of a 3 star binary system though Rigel B and C are infact over 2200 AU away from Rigel A, they do not orbit around Rigel, rather they are linked gravitationally and move through space together. Rigel B and C orbit around each other at a distance of 28 AU (an AU is the distance between the sun and the Earth), slightly less than than the orbit of Neptune around our sun. They orbit extremely quickly, at only 25 days, compared to the 164 years that Neptune orbits the sun.
Rigel B and C are both larger than our sun, at 2.5x and 1.9x the size of our sun respectively. They are both class B stars, making them blue to white in colour and therefor very hot and very bright. Though the proximity to Sirius, which is over 500x brighter makes them difficult to observe.
Story notes:
Although Noko can upgrade the ship, it will take time, though his initial upgrade was quick it will be a while until the ship is fully upgraded. Eventually he will turn the reactor into a miniature star, capable of absorbing almost infinite energy. This is the power source that his race use for almost all of their technology.
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