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Old 04-02-2020, 05:45 AM
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skysurfer
Dark sky rules !

skysurfer is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: 52N 6E (EU)
Posts: 1,152
Rigel instead of Sun

I saw a Youtube video created with Universe Sandbox (a Steam product) depicting with Rigel in place of the Sun and how it is seen from all planets, but the planets proportionally further away so they receive the same amount of energy as from the Sun.
At 2:40 the Earth will be shown which is 340AU away from Rigel to get the same temperature.
The video tells that the temperature on Earth would be OK, but daylight extremely blue and ultraviolet and the Moon much brighter (if still on the same distance from Earth). I cannot understand the latter because the Moon receives the same amount of light. But the strong UV light renders Earth unliveable.

Rigel appears much smaller at that distance (only 10 arc minutes vs 32' of the Sun at 1 AU) but the same magnitude (-26.7) because of the hotter temperature (12000K).

But when placed at 1 AU, Earth would vaporize as temperatures reach 2000 C and even arc welding goggles (if they don't vaporize) cannot protect one's eyes. The star would be an unimaginably bright ball of light of magnitude -38 and angular diameter 35 degrees and the energy flux is 100MW / m2 compared to 1.4kW / m2 of the Sun at 1 AU. No material can withstand this, maybe a shield made of tantalum carbide (mp 3800 C) ....



Just a fantasy from this video about a star we see on top left of Orion ....
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