A gas giant planet, very close to its sun and about to fall into it, is observed by human beings and kzinti. Poul Anderson imagines every kind of cosmic event. In For Love And Glory, hostile species observe a collision between two black holes. In "Pele," the planet approaches its Roche limit.
It is uncoincidental that Ryan compares Tyra to the goddess Pele in "Inconstant Star" and that a star is named "Pele" in "Pele" because it is Tyra who names it.
Probably:
the planet will fill its Roche lobe;
it will become teardrop shaped;
planetary turbulence will eject matter;
the matter will spiral into Pele;
the spiral will become an accretion disk;
it will last for decades or centuries.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And in ENSIGN FLANDRY a rogue planet would soon fall into the star named Saxo. And that sun, being an unstable F5, would then exploded into a nova, destroying the planets orbiting it.
Ad astra! Sean
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