With for the sake of compressing the episodes down to be more concise I altered episode 2 again, slightly. Though I'd better upload it for the sake of continuity in my development work.
New:
With their first mission behind them the
crew set off
towards the nearest star - Alpha Centauri; a solar system of 2 stars, 5
lightyears away! Relieved that the ship's prototype engines worked as
expected the crew's celebrations are cut when the ship's systems detect a
3rd star not
visible from Earth that is actually closer to us - Proxima Centauri,
which they scan before moving on to their original destination. While
gathering enery from the 2 stars the crew receive another mysterious
broken
transmission, after analysing the signal they
find out that it is an alien message over 3000 years old, but with no leads on the origin
of the signal there is no choice but to continue to the next
mission, the supermassive star Sirius.
Old:
With their first mission behind them the
crew set off
towards the nearest star - Alpha Centauri; a solar system of 2 stars, 5
lightyears away! Relieved that the ship's prototype engines worked as
expected the crew's celebrations are cut when the ship's systems detect a
3rd star not
visible from Earth that is actually closer to us - Proxima Centauri,
which they scan before moving on to their original destination. While
gathering enery from the 2 stars the crew receive another mysterious
broken
transmission, after analysing the signal they
find out that it is an alien message over 3000 years old, but there is
no indication of where the signal came from. With no leads on the origin
of the signal the crew have no choice but to continue to the next
mission as planned, to the supermassive star Sirius.
With the new reactor ready to go the team need to find a powerful source of energy to bring it to capacity, and are now on their way to VY Canis Majoris, the largest known star in the galaxy.
Episode 9 Synopsis:
The ship warps into a distant orbit from the huge star VY Canis Majoris, the hugest star the crew has ever seen. SAI informs the captain that because of it's size the star in actually relatively cool and the charging will take a very long time. The captain asks SAI to scan the star while he thinks, SAI begins to relay the information as usual. Noko suggests that because of the stars extremely low density that with the new output of the reactor, it should be able to sustain the shields and allow them to actually enter the star, which would speed up the charging considerably. This starts an argument from the crew, the engineer in particular is still suspicious of his reasons for helping the human crew. The captain asks SAI if Noko's idea is possible, she responds saying that if the ship was to maintain the shields and an extremely fast orbit inside the atmosphere of the star that there is a high chance the ship will escape unharmed. Noko admits he hadn't considered escape velocity, but that the plan was now a complete certainty. The captain agrees and tells SAI to take them inside the star, the engine power up and the ship appears to begin flying past the star before diving into the surface at extremely high speed. Alarms sound due to the stress on the shields, SAI says that shields appear to be holding and that energy is charging rapidly. The captain asks the crew for suggestions for what to do to test out the new reactor now that it's at full. Noko says that the reason that he has given them this technology is that his species have known of life in another galaxy, but they are themselves unable to travel outside of this galaxy because of their method of propulsion, hence their interest in the humans who given enough energy would be able to journey there. The crew are amazed by this revelation and the opportunity to journey to another galaxy, Noko gives the coordinates to SAI, she explains that the journey itself there will take several weeks. After a moment of contemplation the captain tells SAI to take them there. The engines power up and the ship shoots out from the huge star and to it's distant destination.
VY Canis Majoris is the largest known star in the galaxy, an orange hypergiant at over 2000 times the size of our sun. If it were in the center of our solar system the star would extend out past the orbit of saturn.
It is one of the most luminous stars in existance, this is not to say that it is the brightest, rather that over all spectral wavelengths (Gamma-rays, X-rays, Ultraviolet, Visible light, Infrared, Microwaves and Radio).
One controversial issue about the star is stating it's actual size, some scientists believe that due to the extreme low density of it's outer atmosphere the actual 'surface' of the star would only be 800 times the size of our sun rather than around 2100 times. The atmosphere of the star is 0.1% as dense as the atmosphere on Earth, though still over 3000K in temperature.
VY Canis Majoris is located 4,800 lightyears away from Earth in the constellation Canis Major.
And that's the end of the series! Finally finished with these. Alright, now all I have to do is go through all of them and synopsize each one. Fun fun!
Ok if you read the last episode you'll know what's going on next, if not here's a summary... In order to finish his upgrades on the ship Noko requires a material known as Zirconium, and quite a lot of it! SAI has informed the crew of a recently discovered star, with unusually high levels of Zirconium, so we are now on the way there to harvest some... You'll find out how very soon!
Episode 8 Synopsis:
The ship warps into orbit around the small cloudy blue star, the clouds shimmer because of the high levels of metals. The captain is curious about how exactly Noko intends to gather the zirconium he needs from the star. Noko explains that he is reconfiguring the replicators to transport the zirconium atoms out of the atmosphere and into the reactor room. As he leaves for the reactor bay he says that he should not be disturbed. The engineer voices his concerns for allowing him to make unsupervised changes, and that he could be doing anything, the captain says that he trusts him. Shortly after the lights dim and SAI says that the reactor has been stopped and the ship is now running on stored power. The captain assures everyone that they shouldn't worry and asks SAI to scan the star, she begins to relay the information as usual to the captain, but they are interrupted by the engineer who again voices his concerns about Noko and storms out of the bridge. The captain follows him down to the reactor room, the engineer starts to bang on the locked reactor room door, demanding he be let in, ignoring the orders of the captain to calm down. The lights now brighten and SAI appears and informs them that power has returned, and energy output of the reactor has increased dramatically. The door reactor room door unlocks and Noko emerges, apologizing for the panic. He explains that the reactor itself is now capable of not only generating energy but storing enormous amounts of it, like a miniature star and that they should find a bright star to charge it. The captain obliges and asks SAI for any powerful stars nearby. SAI suggests various supergiant stars, the largest of which the captain picks. The ship's engines power up and the ship shoots off to it's next destination: VY Canis Majoris, the largest star in the galaxy.
What a stroke of look this little gem was! Here I am looking for a material for Noko's upgrades and I stumble upon a star with billions of tonnes of zirconium in it's atmosphere, and zirconium happens to be the element used to line nuclear fuel rods. So it even sort of makes sense that Noko might need the stuff! Very very happy!
This beautiful little ball is called LS IV - 14 116, it is a blue sub-dwarf meaning that it's really quite tiny... For a star at least.
What's unusual about this star is it's layer of 'clouds', which contains high amounts of metals, including an estimated 4 billion tonnes of Zirconium, 4,000 times the amount annually produced on Earth. This layer surrounds the entire star, which makes the surface impossible to see.
With the newly doubled energy capacity of the ship the captain has asked SAI to take the ship o the farthest safe star they can travel to, a necessary specification after the trouble with the neutron star. The next destination is the distant star Deneb.
Episode 7 Synopsis:
With the ship at it's new double energy maximum the captain has asked SAI to take the ship as far as safely possible. SAI has chosen the distant star Deneb, and after a much longer than usual flight the ship reaches it's destination. The star appears very similar to Rigel and the crew wonder why they are back there. SAI explains that they have actually traveled almost 2000 light years and they are now orbiting the blue supergiant Deneb, and that again the energy reserves are quickly on their way to maximum capacity again. The captain tells her to find all blue stars and note their locations, and to inform him when they need to recharge the ship. Noko enters the bridge saying that in order to complete his upgrades on the ship, he needs a material called Zirconium in order to reinforce the reactor, much more of it than the replicators are able to supply. SAI suggests that there is a recently discovered Zirconium star within safe traveling distance, Noko says that if the ship can get close enough he has a way of retrieving the substance, and assures the captain that the upgrade will be well worth the time. The captain agrees, the engines start up and they blast off to the Zirconium star.
Deneb is the birghtest star in the Cygnus contellation, hence it's designation Alpha Cig.
Deneb is a blue - white supergiant even larger than Rigel. The star has 20 times the mass of the sun and is an enormous 108x larger! One of the largest known blue supergiants. The surface temperature is thought to be approx 8,400K and it's located 1,550 lightyears away from the sun with 60,000x it's luminosity. Deneb is so large that if it were our sun the orbit of earth would be inside it.
Deneb is actually brighter and larger than Rigel, though it is more than twice the distance away so appears considerably dimmer on Earth. Due to it's size the star is burning though it's fuel at a extremely accelerated rate and is expected to die in a supernova in only a few million years. It is thought the Deneb is still expanding ad will eventually become a red supergiant.
The name Deneb is derived from the Arabic "Dhanab ad-Dajāja" meaning "tail of the hen".
Believe it or not, the 'zirconium star' is actually something that has been quite recently discovered (2008... But I only just read about it) and found it s interesting that I had to involve it somehow! If you simply can't wait to read about it check it out here: http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/157-news2010/1898-a-sparkling-zirconium-star... Amazing stuff!
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.
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.
That's right! A cliff-hanger ending! That should keep the watchers interested. After travelling to a distant neutron star the ship is out of energy and has no way of gathering enough energy to travel to another star.
Episode 5 Synopsis:
The captain is pacing deep in thought, trying to conjure a way out of this situation, he asks SAI for any solutions, to which she responds "Using basic plasma propulsion we can reach the nearest safe star for energy gathering within 100 years, though I'm quite sure that isn't an acceptable solution", and it sets in just how bad a situation this is for the crew. Right when all seems lost the ship receives another transmission from an unknown source but it's clear this time, the alien race is offering help and shortly after warps into view. A bright light engulfs the ship and seconds later the crew find themselves somewhere completely different, now in orbit around a huge blue star and the alien ship no where to be seen. SAI notifies the crew that they are now in orbit around the star Rigel and that energy reserves are rapidly filling, though she can detect no sign of the alien ship or how they arrived here so quickly. It is then that a calm voice speaks from behind the crew, it is an alien, one of the crew that just rescued them. He introduces himself and explains that his crew have been attempting to make contact with them for some time and that luckily they were able to follow them to the neutron star and retrieve them, and he has been left to join the crew and share any knowledge that he can. He and the captain leave the bridge and have a private conversation about the nature of his joining the crew and about his species' interest in the crew and then return to the crew on the bridge. The captain formally introduces the alien Noko as the newest crew member.
This particular episode is more about action than the previous ones, I felt that introducing an alien crew member would make the series more interesting, and this method of introduction felt like a good way to go about it. Though I feel like I should include information about the star Rigel that they are currently orbiting just so that each episode does include educational information. Expect an edit shortly!
Edit: Whoops! Wrong font for a few hours there! Deary me...
Neutron stars are some of the most extreme objects in the solar system,
and I simply couldn't wait any longer to get to the really exciting
stuff!
Episode 4 Synopsis:
After a much longer than usual jump through space the crew have found themselves a long way from home. The crew are clearly nervous about this and the captain asks SAI where they are. SAI responds "The orders given to me were a little vague sir, I have brought you to the nearest, smallest and most powerful star I could find", she has brought them to a neutron star 424 lightyears from Earth. On the monitor is a very distant and very small star, the crew don't really know what to make of it, seeing this SAI explains what the object they are looking at is a very rare and powerful star despite only being about 20km in diameter. The crew want to move closer but SAI informs them that moving closer is too dangerous. Readings are taken, showing that the star has a surface temperature of over 10million K and spewing out radio and x-rays from its rapidly rotating magnetic poles. The captain makes the decision to leave while they can, but the ship has used most of it's fuel getting here, unable to get close enough to the neutron star to gather energy they are stranded a very long way from home.
The size relative size of a neutron star next to the island of Manhattan.
As I already mentioned, Neutron stars are some of the most extreme objects in the universe, the mass of 8 to 10x that of our sun compressed into a truly tiny sphere only 20km across, and spinning hundreds of times per second. Virtually everything about neutron stars are extreme!
Neutron stars are not born this way, they are the remnants of old massive stars and the process is quite complicated, I will explain the steps necessary.
'Main Sequence' stars generate their energy by converting hydrogen into helium, when the star has converted enough of the hydrogen (burnt enough fuel) reactions in the core stop causing it to contract. Reactions in the outer shell continue which causes the outer shell to expand into a 'red giant' phase.
If the star is massive enough then after this phase ends the star will not contract into a white dwarf as with smaller stars, instead it will violently collapse causing a supernova, shedding the large outer layer. The core is left behind as a Neutron star, most of the mass of the star is retained in this tiny core.
Neutron stars spin extremely fast at first, up to hundreds of times per second. This is because the rotation of the spinning red supergiant is maintained as the star contracts extremely quickly, much like when an ice skater brings in their arms to speed up a spin. All of the momentum is retained but on a much smaller object. Very slowly over time this spinning slows down.
At their moment of creation neutron stars can be up to 1,000,000,000,000K but emit energy so quickly that this cools quickly to around 10,000,000K.
The extreme rotation of neutron stars causes them to have very strong magnetic fields, the magnetic poles are not necessarily aligned to the poles of the stars rotation.
Some neutron stars emit radio and x-rays and are named 'Pulsars', this is because the radio and x-rays are emitted from the magnetic poles, which rotate rapidly as the star rotates. This is detected as a 'pulse' as the beam passes quickly over the onlooker.
The gravity of a neutron star is so extreme that any object falling towards it is accelerated to such an extent that upon impact it is destroyed on an atomic level, instantly becoming identical to the matter making up the star.
The closest neutron star to Earth is PSR_J0108_1431 at 424 lightyears from Earth, and is the setting for this episode. This particular neutron star is a very old 'Pulsar' and has slowed to rotate every 0.8 seconds.
