Brown Dwarfs

[shaunhilburn]

Hey, how much light does a brown dwarf put out?

They cool down as they age, so their output diminishes with temperature.

Young: 8/100,000 x the sun's total
Middle age: 3/100,000
Old: 2/10,00,000

What wavelengths?

Brown dwarf peak wavelengths are always in the near infrared, around 800 -1200 angstroms

Young - about 2,600 kelvin - hue like a 60W incandescent bulb
Middle age - 1,200 kelvin - hue like orange magma
Old - 700 kelvin - hue like red-hot iron

How big are they?

All brown dwarfs are about the size of Jupiter +/- 10%. During formation they accumulate mass, and the increased gravity causes them to self-compact proportionally (hydrogen is light an easily compressed), so this size range is the upper limit for a non-stellar object.

 

[infojunky]

Brown dwarf peak wavelengths are always in the near infrared, around 800 -1200 angstroms

Young - about 2,600 kelvin - hue like a 60W incandescent bulb
Middle age - 1,200 kelvin - hue like orange magma
Old - 700 kelvin - hue like red-hot iron

Now that is useful answer.....

 

[Icosahedron]

Wow -- a brown dwarf in every hex? This changes everything. I wonder what percentage would have viable fuel sources? Pirates would LOVE these things.

This is precisely why I make the things useless. IMTU it is just a nod to astrophysics reality, I don't want it to change the game. None of them can be directly skimmed for fuel, thanks to radiation and gravity, and very few have rings. Furthermore, even the ultra-rare rings can't be scooped or skimmed with normal apparatus - you would need a dedicated mining ship or spend a long time (weeks) on multiple spacewalks for emergency refuelling. I don't need mass to end a jump.

Also, the odd uncharted BD with a ring is certain to have attracted military attention and is far more likely to be the site of a secret Imperial facility than a pirate haven.

Otherwise, yes, it would change everything.

 

[ThunderChilde]

Hence my refence to private charting, those rare BDs with a GG, small of course, or perhaps, the GG failed companion star of the BD would be an invaluable resouce if they were in the right places.

BDs are common in MTU and generally fail to cause misjumps. In charted space, they are known, plaotted and accounted for in all charts, just as above, unmeantioned because they are just not usable for fueling. Yes I am in the mass field exit school.

 

[Straybow]

Some will have icy moons (mini-me planetary systems), or Kuiper-like belts. The ones with moons will be useful for refueling. Kuiper-like objects will be useful for mining for refueling stations.

 

[ThunderChilde]

Binary and Trinary Brown Dwarf sysems have been Identified, and there is evidence of a Jupiter sized, 2-3 masses planet around one of them, indications of accreation discs and possible planetary systems. The more they look the weirder it gets.

 

[Psion]

I remember the JTAS article and did some of my own research. I ran a game based on them at GenCon (03 or 04, I think) set in the T20 Gateway setting, using the "stepping stones" idea.

The idea I had was that the Gateway region was first inhabited by groups that only had access to J1 ships and rarely, J2, but many regions weren't accessible by existing star systems. Using kuiper-like objects in orbit of Brown Dwarfs for fuel is a dangerous and painstaking thing to do in the best of times, and didn't make too much sense once J2 and J3 drives were commonplace. But at the time, way stations made sense.

The backstory went that there was a navigator's guild that were member of a branch of the Church of Stellar Divinity that would eventually become the Free and Holy Federation of Amil in the Crucis Margin sector, and these guild navigators were responsible for establishing and maintaining the way stations, which made them powerful force in the region in their day.

The adventure had the players run afoul a plot by treasure seekers to uncover the coordinates of brown dwarfs that hosted these ancient way stations in hope to uncover the husk of an ancient freighter with a hold full of valuable cargo.

Yeah. A treasure ship. The traveller version of the hunt for sunken treasure.