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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=marcaramini@yahoo.com
href="mailto:marcaramini@yahoo.com">Marc Aramini</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, November 10, 2011 3:02 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=urth@lists.urth.net
href="mailto:urth@lists.urth.net">The Urth Mailing List</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: (urth) vanished people=Hieros</DIV>
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On Thu, 11/10/11, Marc Aramini <marcaramini@yahoo.com>
wrote:<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; TEXT-DECORATION: "><FONT
face=Calibri><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">> </FONT></FONT>Can the moon be an
asteroid or not? No? </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><BR>I
suppose it could be described as one, especially by someone who didn’t know
where it originated. The definition of ‘asteroid’ is a bit vague, but it’s
generally thought of as a small body, too small to become a sphere due to its
own gravitational force.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">The
largest asteroids are about 500 miles in diameter somewhat ellipsoidal – there
are moves to categorise them as dwarf planets. The Moon is over 2000 miles
in diameter and spherical. So it doesn’t really fit the picture if you
expect an asteroid to be somewhat irregular in shape.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Also,
the Moon’s gravity would render hollowing it out next to impossible. And
despite the Whorl being both large and of ill-defined size, it is
difficult to imagine that it could be as large as the Moon.</DIV></DIV>
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> The passage of time makes it difficult to imagine that the<BR>> >
long sun whorl didn't go somehwere, unless it's not 300 but<BR>> > 3000
years as the lost digit in Maytera's ruminations might<BR>> > hint at -
not enough information. It seems to have<BR>> > gone
somewhere.<BR></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">I’m
guessing the intention is that it travelled for 300 years Whorl-time, but due to
relativistic time dilation that was about 2000 years on Urth. [A problem
is that Sol seems to be visible, albeit dimly, in the skies of Blue, indicating
a distance of less than a hundred light years. Another is that if Typhon
had that much energy at his disposal, solar dimming shouldn’t have troubled
him. But it’s in accordance with SF tropes, so I think we are probably
intended to read it so rather than nit-pick the physics. An alternative
explanation is that the Whorl travelled at only a small fraction of light speed,
in which case only 300 years passed on Urth also.]</DIV>
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<DIV><BR>> > I always saw it as an ark, too.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Well, a generation ship in SF *is* an ark. But if the implication of
‘ark’ includes escape from a disaster, it doesn’t really work. Typhon was
surely at the height of his powers when he had it constructed.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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