Chiron?

[Closey]

I started thinking about the name Chiron.. And I couldn't remember where it came from. I mean, the only place in the game I can recall seeing it is the locusts of chiron. Everything seems to say Planet. So help me out here, anyone know where it comes from? Or is it just right there in front of me and I've managed to miss it?

[Sprayber]

In mythology, Chiron was a centaur. Half man, half horse. He was killed by Hercules, what the people call Alpa Centauri B. The moons of Chiron are named after two other centuars, Pholus and Nessus.

Orbiting Alpha Centauri A, is Eurytion. A Mercury type planet.


I perfer to call the planet Chiron, just sounds better I guess. All my custom factions refer to it as Chiron. Today we have different names for our planet. Earth and Terra are common enough.

Hercules is mentioned in the game, but other than Locusts of Chiron I can't remember if the word Chrion is actually mentioned in the game. Can someone remember seeing Chiron mentioned instead of planet? I haven't played a full game in sometime.
[This message has been edited by Sprayber (edited March 18, 2001).]

[gwillybj]

There are only four instances of the word Chiron in the default .txt files

Chiron Preserve (Gaian Base)
Hawk of Chiron (Spartan Base)
Locusts of Chiron (Native Life Form)
Men Are From Chiron, Women Are From Nessus (Holobook Title)

It appears in "planets.txt" (an informational file that is not used by the game, it's for anyone interested in the "science" of the game).

In the manual on page 16 is the explanation of "Planet" vs "Chiron"

"Your new home in the Alpha Centauri system is officially called Chiron, but most of the new inhabitants refer to it as Planet..."

I read something somewhere about how/why the writers stopped using Chiron, but I can't remember where.
[This message has been edited by gwillybj (edited March 18, 2001).]

[Closey]

*goes and gets the manual* Ah, yes.. there it is! Thanks! It was page 14 tho.. I didn't even know about planets.txt.. I guess I need to look at those files some more. There was some facts about it in the manual too.. at page 183, but not as much as in that file. Cool. Well, thanks.

[Cybergod]

Hmm... Isn't the Pluto's moon called Chiron?

[jones]

Charon, considered by some to be "binary planets" due to Charon's large size

Chiron, or P/Chiron, is an asteroid first charted around '75 IIRC.

-d

[johndmuller]

quote: Thanks! It was page 14 tho..

There must be different editions; mine was on page 16 too

quote: Hmm... Isn't the Pluto's moon called Chiron?

Think so too.
Now they're saying that Pluto may not be officially a planet anymore; what would that make Chiron then?

[knowhow2]

johndmuller,

I also have mine on page 14 , maybe closey and I got the "Swedish version" . (it's still in english though)

[Christantine The Great]

If Pluto is not officially a planet anymore (though space.com doesn't agree yet) then its moon Charon would be a moonoid to Pluto being a planetoid or asteroid. A mythology lesson:

Pluto was the Greek god of the underworld, Charon was the boatman who ferried you over from the land of the living to the underworld.

[knowhow2]

quote: Originally posted by Christantine The Great on 03-19-2001 09:18 PM Pluto was the Greek god of the underworld, Charon was the boatman who ferried you over from the land of the living to the underworld.

Except pluto is called Hades by the Greeks and pluto by the romans.

[Christantine The Great]

Well it is the same idea...

[It'sLikeThat]

Hey, why did the UN send UNS Unity to Alpha Centauri? I thought Proxima Centauri was the closest star system. Or am I wrong? Or are they the same? Or is AC the closest G-class star with terrestrial planets?

[Sprayber]

Proxima Centauri is closer. At least part of the time. Maybe some of the astromony experts can explain, cause I don't know

------------------
I ain't never crossed a man that didn't deserve it. Me be treated like a punk, you know that's unheard of

[knowhow2]

quote: Originally posted by It'sLikeThat on 03-21-2001 12:47 AM Hey, why did the UN send UNS Unity to Alpha Centauri? I thought Proxima Centauri was the closest star system. Or am I wrong? Or are they the same? Or is AC the closest G-class star with terrestrial planets?

hey we talking about the UN here. The obvious to logic isn't always the obviuos to them. First the Us has a say, then Britain has to say then France then russia then China (not peticular in that order) then ...... well you get he picture.
Beside, if they send the UNS to Proxima Centauri then the game would be called Proxima Centauri. I bet not to many people know what that is.

[Christantine The Great]

The system is called Alpha Centauri, one of the stars is named Proxima Centauri.

The choice is very logical, considering that in the 2030s, '40s, and '50s the knew much more about how to read planet's atmosphere at a distance. No other planet in the solar system is hospitable enough for easy colonization. Mercury, too close to the fireplace; Venus, would take a thousand years to fix the atmosphere; Earth, DUH!; Mars, considerable terraforming would have to be done to even make a small colony; (Now I am refering to moons) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune don't have large enough, warm enough, hospitable enough moons to harbor any human life; Pluto, I don't think so. The only logical choice would be another star system. Anyway if you were a UN official and you knew that the Unity was built by who knows how many regimes and you know that it would probably explode, wouldn't you want it to explode far away?

They probably figured out that there was some type of Earth-sized planet with somewhat of an atmosphere. They decided to shoot the bottle rocket that-a-way.