That's exactly why I included in one of my messages the statement,
"astronomy as it was understood in 1991-95." And by "astonomy" I also mean
all the related fields like planetary science, etc.
SF is always getting shot in the butt by the latest discoveries. But
astrophysics tends to hold together better than many scientific areas.
Dave
> Yep you are completely correct Mike on your points special is special
> because its out of the normal or 'expected'.
>
> I would only caution that astrophysicists themselves admit that their
> understanding of the cosmos is very limited (only about 4%). And that
> while
> its all good to have a base line to create a setting like Traveller its
> tables are based on knowledge which everyone has to honestly admit is
> 'limited' so making assertions that something 'can't' be a certain way
> like
> small planets holding an atmospheres is an assertion based entirely on a
> sample size of our solar system. Since we have not actually visited other
> star systems nor currently have a way to determine if any planet around
> any
> other star actually 'has' an atmosphere for anything smaller than a Gas
> Giant.
>
> However if your going to make a game you have to start somewhere and
> current understanding is as good a place as any.
>