Strange solar systems #4:

Three suns dance in the sky above,
as they have since long ago
Tracing out a figure-eight,
they warm us down below.

It's said our planet's lucky,
That it wandered through the void
What life there was was trapped within
by encroaching bitter cold.

Alone and frozen till by chance
It came upon these stars
And with the heat of three small suns
The world we know evolved.

#worldbuilding #poetry #solarsystem #strangesolarsystems #3bodyproblem #classicalmechanics

Inspired by Christopher Moore's solution to the 3 body problem with equal masses. https://web.archive.org/web/20181008213647/http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~moore/braids-prl.pdf

Strange solar systems #3?

With just the right orbital parameters a small planet could be passed back and fourth between the two stars in a highly elliptical binary system. A red dwarf and a white dwarf could have similar masses for stability, but very different colors and luminosities.

The climate on this planet would be quite strange. Long periods of cool stability, warmed by either a red or white sun. But between the red and white ages; a brief period of heat and change, with two suns in the sky, and little in the way of night.

#strangesolarsystems #solarsystem #worldbuilding #space #planet #climate