Official Map of the 'Verse at QMX
POSTED BY: micjwelch
UPDATED: Monday, May 4, 2009 10:17
VIEWED: 22446
PAGE 2 of 5
Quote:
Originally posted by micjwelch:
I think that as long as we're buying stuff from these guys, they'll keep making it. Here's what they said about requirements for what they sell (from http://www.fireflyshipworks.com/2008/11/marian-calls-geek-music/).Quote:
A QMx product must be unique, expertly designed, drool-worthy (although you shouldn’t need to be a fan to think so), and, most importantly, if we didn’t do it, probably no one else would.
If you want more stuff from them, support them, and make comments on http://www.fireflyshipworks.com/. They really do read them.
I think also that they make stuff they themselves want. And they are Browncoats. And they hire Browncoats to make stuff. So we get shiny stuff to buy!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Hey there -
Just wanted to let you know the Map will be available direct off our website starting next week: http://store.quantummechanix.com. And we will have a bunch at the Creation con this weekend.
Personally, I can't wait to get mine. Got a space all picked out on the wall and everything ;-)
- Andy
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I am wondering... how "Official" is the map?
It has similarities to the one in Serenity, but also looks a little different.
So... is this guesswork from the maps in the series/movie, or is it officially sanctioned and signed off from insider knowledge?
If on the other hand its just guess work, but they have a licence to print merchandise, it is worthless.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
That's a great question, NBZ; let me answer it as thoroughly and accurately as I can:
It's an official product, licensed and approved by Universal. As for it looking a little different than the Verse map from the movie – the map you see in the classroom scene of the movie is just The Core or White Sun system. The only time you see the whole of the Verse is for a split second before the computer screen zooms in on Miranda. That map was designed by Geoffrey Mandel who also designed this map and it's consistent with the five-system star cluster he designed for that shot.
We spent two years researching this and have made every effort to make it comprehensive. Every planet and moon mentioned in the series and movie are there, plus all the planets from maps and art developed for the movie that might not have seen screen time. We also incorporated new worlds from licensed products – notably the Serenity RPG and Dark Horse comics. Most importantly, we ensured that story continuity from both the series and movie work in this model of the Verse. So, distances, travel times and relative position are as consistent as possible.
Margaret Weiss Productions (makers of the Serenity RPG) have even endorsed the map:
Quote:
"The Map of the Verse is gorgeous and informative — something any Browncoat is going to want but an absolute must-have for players of the Serenity Role Playing Game as it will give major guidance to players and Gamer Masters about where the planets and moons of this star cluster sit. The map is a gao guhn piece of art, and I can't wait to have one hanging on my office wall!" — Jamie Chambers (author and designer, Serenity Role Playing Game)
I believe this is the most detailed and accurate map that it's possible to make at this time. Having said that, it's Joss' universe and he can change it any time he wants. So it's always possible he could do something to contradict this model if he felt it served the story he was creating.
And we'd be thrilled if he did, if only because it would mean we'd have more Serenity content from Joss ;-)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Oh the agony of being an astronomer!
If I'm reading this correctly, the verse is a multiple star system. Which makes some sense given the number of planets, but 5 stars? Am I seeing this correctly? 5? I always figured there were 2 stars to accomidate 200+ worlds, but 5?
One of the things I loved about Firefly was the gritty realness of everything. Even the technology of the full burn is a controlled fusion reaction, a technology I believe is one day coming. But the idea of 5 stars being able to co-exist within a stable system of planets is a big stretch. The gravitational attractions of 5 stellar mass bodies would pull and stretch planet orbits into crazy elipses and loops, with eventual deaths of bodies that were pulled upon by one star and flung into another, over millions of years. I had figured on a 2 star binary system with lots of gas giants that had earth mass moons, like Titan in the Saturn system or Ganymede and Callisto around Jupiter.
Ah, well. I guess I need to just go with it.
And please don't pick a fight with me about it, I know too much about astronomy to back down if someone tries. I said I'd go with it.
Do not fear me. Our's is a peaceful race and we must live in harmony.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Now I know what I'm getting myself for Christmas 
Thanks for the info.
I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thanks for the info.
(and by worthless, I did not mean worthless. Just worth less :P)
@BLUESUNCOMPANYMAN: The movie did seem to indicate between 5 and 7 stars/gas giants (could not really tell)
The problem with your picture/dislike is "over millions of years." This place does not have to exist for that long. There is always the possibility to stay a couple of millenia or less and move on to something better? people's lives will still not lasts hundreds of years, so the timescale of millions of years probably does not matter.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Yeah, well, we saw the same flaw. But sometimes when you have a starting point that's defined for you, and may not have been developed with a strong science foundation in mind, you have to work backward into a theory that fits the model you're given.
In this case, we theorized that The Verse was formed when several lower gravity suns came within the gravitational influence of the stronger White Sun and formed a rudimentary orbital system where the star systems operate almost like planets. Our Big Science Brains theorize that the system would thus be inherently unstable and would break apart again in 25K to 50K years or so.
More than long enough for humans to use up all the resources, don't ya think?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Hmm. OK, I like where you were going with this.
My advice, if you want a strong science angle, red dwarf stars are your FRIENDS. Red dwarfs constitute 80% of the milky way, are very very dim and quite cold on a stellar level. They burn their hydrogen fuel at a scale a fraction the speed of a star like our sun. Where our sun is expected to live 5 billion more years, a red dwarf lives more like 50-80 billion.
Dwarfs are awsome because they are so very common and often pair up with other stellar masses, being part of binary and trinary systems frequently. Their radiation levels are lower, but that just means a planet needs to orbit closer to be in the "Sweet Spot" for life.
The troubling stars are Blue and White ones. These stars are typically upwards of 5 times larger than our sun and kick out TONS of radiation. They tend to irradiate everything around them and are terrible for lifeforms of any kind. An earth-like body orbiting a star like that would need to be further away to avoid the deadly effects produced by the intense nucular fire nearby, but even then there is the issue of earth plantlife adapted to a yellow star trying to live off radiation from a blue or white one.
There are of course ways around these issues. One could always write into their fiction that a particular planet has a planetary radiation shield or something. I also see an issue with not having blue star cannon from TV. Whenever the characters were walking around, things tended to look "normal" (i.e. yellow star) as opposed to the blue look from a film like pitch black. When the characters were on miranda things looked whitewashed though, perhaps a case for a white star.
If I were to change anything about the 'verse map, it might be to limit it to 1 blue or white star. That way, there isn't the troubling issue of the intense gravity of either one yanking planets into elipses and ultimate demise. I'd increase the red dwarfs since they are weak and dim. I'd have at least 1 yellow star.
Here's a good wikipedia link of a red dwarf that orbits a yellow star and they both orbit a white one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_188753
Perhaps a White/yellow binary system that captured 3 red dwarfs as the star system orbited the galactic center over...say....2 billion years (equals about 8 galactic center orbits if you were to calculate being in an outter spiral as like we are currently)
You'd only want it to be 2 billion years old, else you run the risk of the blue/white star going suoernova, an eventual fate and a horrible event to all within 20 light years.
It looks as though your map is done so my thoughts may be late, but if I had anything to change....those things would be it.
Summary:
1 monster blue or white central body
1 yellow sun to form the orginial binary
3 captured red dwarfs
lots of gas giants with moons
lots of rocky terrestrials too.
Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that someone finally thought this through enough to make a map. Awsome, and thank you for it.
Do not fear me. Our's is a peaceful race and we must live in harmony.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by QMxAndy:
Our Big Science Brains theorize that the system would thus be inherently unstable and would break apart again in 25K to 50K years or so.
Why assume that all the suns are natural occuring? And that all the suns are actually suns. Maybe they just look like suns from the outside.
Gravity drives. Fusion. Big ball of hydrogen etc. First experiment. Darn, it turned out blue. It is okay, we will just turn the logo from Yellow Sun to Blue Sun and act like we were always trying for a blue sun.
willbueche on http://whedonesque.com/comments/18160#268290 wrote | November 19, 23:00 CET
Quote:
Arthur C. Clarke's 2010 ...book even created a situation in which our own Jupiter collapsed and ignited, forming a smaller sun in orbit around our sun. This second, smaller sun provided a nice twilight effect at night from then on. (No more pitch-black nights on Earth any more). So if was good enough for that most "science" minded of all science fiction writers, it must be thought possible.
I love the way that the blue sun's satellites are at an off-kilter orbit compared to the rest. Fitting!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME