At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉
From this episode of NASA's Unexplained Files (it's the segment that begins at about minute 11 and is about 7 minutes long)...
What if we had a second sun that we couldn't see?
(How can't we see it? If it were an infrared star, one that emits energy that's beyond the visible light spectrum, our eyes wouldn't be able to perceive it.)
I'd wonder if that wasn't the reason the ice caps are melting...
ReplyDeleteIt'd be very hot. HAHA
ReplyDeleteDepending on how close it is. If it were out beyond Pluto and the Oort Cloud, it would look to us (if we could see it) pretty much how the sun looks to Neptune. That is, a bright night object, but not much bigger than how we see Jupiter.
DeleteI'd say gravity would be affecting our planet way differently. On the other hand, there is supposed to be something giant in the solar system out way past Pluto...
ReplyDeleteHmmm that would be interesting :D
ReplyDeleteIt would be.
DeleteOh, thank you for sharing. I'm reminded of the movie "Pitch Dark", which I adore. Be well!
ReplyDeleteReally? How so?
DeleteWell if we had one that we could not see I guess how we address that would be if we know there is another one! If we know about it I guess I would up my sunscreen number! If we don't know then I guess I would be wondering why I keep getting a sun burn!!
ReplyDeleteIt would be weird, wouldn't it?
DeleteOuch.....gotta go put sunscreen on, I am burning.
DeleteWould we be affected by it at all through temperature, gravity? I'd be enormously curious then. If strange things start happening, this question is going to keep me guessing. :)
ReplyDeleteIf it's there, it would have been there all along, since the solar system was created. So, we wouldn't notice. That's the weird part.
DeleteMaybe that's the origin of all the super heroes? They were affected by the nemesis sun!
ReplyDeleteOooh, I like it.
DeleteIts an interesting theory. And I'm sure we have read many books and watched movies with theories like this.
ReplyDeleteI liked Alex's question. So funny.
ReplyDeleteShields up Scotty! The shields can't take much more of this, Captain, I'm giving it all I've got but shes packing quite a wallop!
ReplyDeleteThen I'd hope we had a second ozone layer as well.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that might be a problem...
DeleteWell, that would be very interesting. I wonder how it would affect us.
ReplyDeleteIt would have had to be there all along, so we wouldn't notice a difference.
DeleteHuh. I am not a sciency person, so this isn't really a question I know how to answer. :/
ReplyDeleteIt's a weird one, that's for sure.
DeleteReally not much. If it's been there all along no big deal since nothing really changed except us "knowing" it was there. If it's a new arrival then that would be a whole different issue.
ReplyDelete