Radical Jumpspace Theories

[Sifu Blackirish]

I am sort of a synthesist. I look at things, and my brain sort of throws it all in a blender and pours out something completely different...like this.

IMTU (theoretically) what formed the Claw is a rip in the fabric of jumpspace. Uncontrolled use of incompletely understood Stargates sucked everything there into a pocket dimension.

What I want to throw out to the group is...does this theory make sense? Could there be a network of jumpspace fault lines in the galaxy, having at least once been stressed to the breaking point with catastrophic results?

I scribbled up a few pages for an adventure, but I want to get some opinion on this before continuing. Am I on reasonably solid ground?

The 'claw' is formed by the presence of the 'Great Rift', isn't it? Which in the TU is just a dearth of stars.

IRL, there isn't such a paucity of stars anywhere. So maybe a weird jumpspace phenomenon might work - kinda like T20's Deadspace, that region is actually full of stars and systems but jump travel just isn't possible there.

Or maybe it is possible, but jumpspace is very turbulent there and survival is extremely unlikely.

[mike wightman]

Perhaps it is a result of the Ancient experiments to "find" jump space in the first place,; or pocket universe experiments that have gone wrong; or an experiment to move an entire solar system through jump space went off the rails.

Or, perhaps it is a natural phenomenon.
As Mal says, since normal space would be full of stars, the problem is that very powerful jump drives are required to jump "over" or "through" the jump maelstrom.

[Fritz_Brown]

But, Mal, wasn't the Rift based on the space between arms of our galaxy? How close to that are we IRL? (I know... Not that the star topography matches RL anyway...)

[Ran Targas]

Are the rifts really empty? Wouldn't rifts be the realm of white/brown dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, rogue planets, and planetary nebula left over from blue giant formation on the leading edge of the spiral arm? Sort of the divots left over from a passing herd of wildebeast? Or flotsam in the wake of a wave?

And wouldn't there also be older yellow dwarfs, in circular orbit around the core, passing through the rifts, rather than forming and dying at the edge of an arm?

My understanding of it (which may be flawed) is that the gaps between spiral arms are actually full of stars - they're just full of dimmer ones (ie red and orange dwarfs). The arms are density waves rotating around the galactic core - those trigger off star formation so the arms are filled with large, hot bright stars as a result.

So really, the 'arms' we see are actually 'wavefronts' of star formation, and the 'gaps' are more like 'fallow regions' where the waves have passed and the bright stars have died.

[Ran Targas]

Originally posted by Malenfant:
My understanding of it (which may be flawed) is that the gaps between spiral arms are actually full of stars - they're just full of dimmer ones (ie red and orange dwarfs). The arms are density waves rotating around the galactic core - those trigger off star formation so the arms are filled with large, hot bright stars as a result.

So really, the 'arms' we see are actually 'wavefronts' of star formation, and the 'gaps' are more like 'fallow regions' where the waves have passed and the bright stars have died.

You mean I might actually have it right, Mal? Throw me a bone, man!

Yes, Ran, you may actually have it right [img]smile.gif[/img] . Less on the 'stellar graveyard' aspect though. There probably are stellar remnants between the arms, but there's still a lot of normal orange and red dwarfs there too.

[Ran Targas]

Perhaps my analogies weren't right on. I did mean to imply that the rifts are only dark because the arms are so bright in comparison; just as a wave appears bright white on the crest and dark in the trough, but the water is just as wet.