Science Game of Thrones Planet

perseus

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Everyone knows The famous books of the game Game of Thrones

The action takes place in a hypothetical world with a technological and cultural level that reminds, as in many other works of fantasy, the late Middle Ages of Europe.

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However there is a peculiarity, and that is that this world presents a cold and prolonged winters that condition the life and adventures of the protagonists of the series.

According to the novel, winters can be short and mild (about 600 days long) or hard and long (almost 900 days). Apparently, long and short winters follow each other in a chaotic way without a recognizable pattern.

But for a mind with astronomical concerns, things change. If we assume that the world of game of thrones is a terrestrial planet. Is there an explanation?

Yes, the world of Game of Thrones is really a circumbinary planet. or what is the same, a planet that orbits around two stars at the same time.

The planet of Game of Thrones would rotate around two stars of solar type with a period of 700 days. (e = 0.1, almost like the orbit of Mars) and its axis of rotation would have a zero inclination.

The semimajor axis of the orbit would change constantly, presenting a minimum distance to the barycenter of the system of 225 million km minimum and 375 million maximum.

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Causing drastic temperature differences.

For its part, the two stars would be about 83 million kilometers from each other.

The ingenious thing about this explanation is that a world with these characteristics could experience long or short winters that would happen erratically without a fixed pattern. That is, just what appears in the work of G. R. R. Martin.

Except for one detail, and is that in the series no mention is made of the presence of a double sun. Although who knows, perhaps they are so accustomed that they do not consider it appropriate to mention it.
 

Ripley

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Just few days ago I was speaking exactly about this problem to my GF (an avid GoT viewer), wondering about how it could be possible to have winters with different lenghts...
I had less scientific and orbit mechanics facts with me, so many thanks for bringing this up.
 
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RisingFury

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The ingenious thing about this explanation is that a world with these characteristics could experience long or short winters that would happen erratically without a fixed pattern.

If the planet was orbiting a binary star, then there'd be two suns in the sky, so there goes that ingenious theory of yours.
 

boogabooga

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This has been discussed on O-F before. Do a search, there were some other hypotheses.

Bottom line was, it's "magic" and not natural and should not be taken too seriously.
 

dbeachy1

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If the planet was orbiting a binary star, then there'd be two suns in the sky, so there goes that ingenious theory of yours.

Well, perseus did mention the double-sun point:

Except for one detail, and is that in the series no mention is made of the presence of a double sun. Although who knows, perhaps they are so accustomed that they do not consider it appropriate to mention it.

Personally, I think it's a cool concept, magic or not. :thumbup:
 

Urwumpe

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Well, considering the fuzz humans make about the sun and about all the rest of astronomy or astrology, its highly doubtful the fact of a binary sun would not be mentioned at all.

But what if the planet is a moon? From a geocentric perspective it would be hard to tell that you are the moon and not sun and your "moon" moving around your "planet".
 
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