Re: BSG+ Centauri A, B, C and Cally (was Re: Anyone else notice...)

"John Graeme" <jdgraeme@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:cbcacdd8-d91a-4ba7-b609-36f074da79d4@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Apr 19, 6:28 pm, Allen <notarealemailaddr...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:56:01 -0400, "KalElFan"
>> <kalel...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>
>> >>> I assumed the "trinary star" system was a reference to the closest 
>> >>> star system to our Sun. It's commonly called Alpha Centauri but
>> >>> there are actually three stars, Centauri A, B and C (the latter
>> >>> called Proxima Centauri). The ringed gas giant Starbuck
>> >>> mentioned I took to mean Saturn.
>>
>> >>If you take another look at Kara's hallucinations of that gas giant
>> >>with the comet...
>>
>> >I've seen the one from last night's episode.  Did we see that in ep 2?
>>
>> >> ... you will clearly see 2 stars right next to each other.
>>
>> >Yes, but the "trinary star" description obviously means there are 3.
>> >Check the scale drawing with the Sun and the three Centauri stars
>> >halfway down this page:
>>
>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri
>>
>> >Proxima is actually the smallest, a red dwarf or "flare" star that
>> >shoots out what Starbuck may have described as a comet.
>>
>> >It could also be that she was describing Proxima Centauri as
>> >the gas giant, but I distinctly recall her saying it was ringed.  So
>> >again I took her to mean that she passed a ringed gas giant
>> >planet, and then on her way further out saw this trinary star
>> >system that fits Alpha Centauri A, B and C (Proxima Centauri).
>>
>> Read the article a little more, partiularly the first two sentences
>> under the "Characteristics" section.
>>
>> There's no way that Starbuck could have seen Proxima Centauri from our
>> solar system with her own eyes even if she was flying out past Saturn.
>> It's too dim. Even if you were near Alpha Centauri A&B, you wouldn't
>> be able to distinguish Proxima from the vast majority of stars.  In
>> fact, Alpha Centauri A & B orbit so close together that they look like
>> a single star from anywhere in our own solar system.
>
> True, but presumably Starbuck has other sensors and analysis equipment
> besides just ordinary vision. Or this information may be something
> that she got through extrasensory channels, as she did her vision of
> the mandala that she painted on her apartment...

Also, even existing BSG canon has had them detecting and exploring
planetary systems.  So it doesn't even require imagining other ways of
her doing it, though the unique cir***stances of her disappearance
and return obviously allow for that.

> BTW, the last I read it wasn't confirmed that Proxima Centauri is
> gravitationally bound to A&B--not that that changes the point in this
> case.

Other than the Wiki article, most sources seem to state as fact that
it is part of a triple-star system.  It has such a long period orbiting A
and B though (millions of years according to a few sources) that it'll
perhaps take measurements over many more years before the data
irrefutably proves it.