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Full Version: Lich, Draugr, Poltergeist, and Phobetor: a neutron star system
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Lich, a neutron star 2,300 light-years from Earth, had some of the first exoplanets discovered (1992). The official names for the exoplanets: Draugr, Poltergiest, and Phobetor, which were likely born in a second round of planet forming by the collision of a white dwarf and neutron star. Has this system made it into Orion's Arm?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_B1257%2B12 

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Are these the real names The IAU are having fun.

No, it's not in OA yet.
(02-03-2021, 02:53 AM)stevebowers Wrote: [ -> ]Are these the real names The IAU are having fun.

What if I tell you that these are from the NameExoWorlds 2015
Excellent! I'm looking forward to Planet McPlanetface.
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Et cetera, I like that. You'd think Saturn would have a moon named that by now.

What's the likely composition of neutron star planets? When two neutron stars or a neutron star and white dwarf collide, would you get a lot of heavy elements spewed out of the mix, or would it mostly be light elements from the white dwarf?
Looks like these events would be pretty productive.
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I see Neil DeGrasse Tyson,  but who is the other person?

In addition to Orionsarm's other projects, can we make a movie with that as the poster?  Seems like movie making is easier now that Hollywood's studio system is out of fashion. Big Grin

That's a cool Periodic Table; where did you get it?  Thanks.
The 'naming moons' clip is from Brooklyn 99. That's Chelsea Peretti.

The nucleosynthesis table is from Wikipedia. We could use it, if we gave proper attribution.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:..._table.svg
Neutron star planets' composition would be even weirder than carbonaceous (adamanean?) planets. All those rare heavy elements mixed with oddball transition elements, but starved of the light ones like oxygen and carbon.
There might be a story idea there, with a theme borrowed from "Mirkheim" by Poul Anderson.

It occurs to me that such a planet might might be a valuable source of heavy elements - including, perhaps, elements in the Island of Stability. Very valuable - and extraordinarily dangerous.

I'm not sure it would fit very well with OA, though. With "current year" technology it would be far easier to simply make the stuff.

BTW, the world in that work was supposed to be the remnant core of a gas giant planet that had been largely evaporated by its primary going supernova, leaving behind its iron core - which had been liberally plated with heavy elements from the supernova. Quite reasonable, given the time the story was written.
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