All Our Yesterdays

[Commishsleer]

Was the reason the Enterprise turned up with only 3 1/2 hours to spare because the signs of the supernova were only noticed in real space?
By then it was too late for the Federation to mount a rescue even at Warp speed?
I'm assuming that it was noticed sometime beforehand on the planet as it would have taken them years to all decide and then to leave.

 

[Henoch]

Are the multiple Mr. Atoz's possible time aberrations of the same man, and not just clones/holographic duplicates/etc.? It is a time traveling society with the Library seemingly a protected zone against time changes, so why not? This was never really explained in the episode.

Was the reason the Enterprise turned up with only 3 1/2 hours to spare because the signs of the supernova were only noticed in real space?
By then it was too late for the Federation to mount a rescue even at Warp speed?
I'm assuming that it was noticed sometime beforehand on the planet as it would have taken them years to all decide and then to leave.

It seems that Beta Niobe is a super massive star going into its supernova phase. Kirk's log says that there is only one satellite in the system, planet Sarpeidon, so, in doesn't appear to be a binary star system feeding one star into a Type 1a nova unless he neglected to mention its companion star or his focus of discussion was only on the one planet in the system and then only because they detected that the planet's population disappeared. The Enterprise is a very busy and in demand ship, so I assume that it would not be assigned to a long term scientific mission to study the nova process. Maybe they were assigned to peek in at the very end, then only to discover the mystery of the sudden population disappearance on Sarpeidon.

Today, the final stage is the most interesting and least scientifically understood. Apparently, a probe or long-range scan of the system detected the supernova process starting (once the star burns off its hydrogen and helium, and starts to burn carbon and oxygen, the process accelerates into eventual core collapse). Knowing the exact mass and composition of the star, the durations of each fuel burn cycles, hence by the 23rd century, Starfleet can predict the supernova explosion to the minute. Nice.

(Reality note: We have identified all the hypergiant and supergiant star candidates for supernova in our corner of the galaxy, and only two within 4000 lys have a chance to explode anytime soon, with "soon" within the next 100,000 years. Scientific American reports that astronomers have identified the best candidate yet for our galaxy's next supernova explosion, according to a new report. If restricting the exploration limit in the 1000 ly range, then none are predicted to explode over the next 300 years. Findings published in the February 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal suggest that Rho Cassiopeia, located 10,000 light-years away from earth, is most likely to run out of fuel and meet a violent fate in the near future. Other reports that Eta Carinae (which is also in a binary star system) is about 7,500 lys from Earth, in the very last stages of its life, could literally go supernova at any second. But these may also live hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands more years before it does so.)

Based on real science, Beta Niobe is probably a white dwarf star in binary star getting ready to explode due to accumulation of mass from its smaller companion (Alpha Niobe? ). These type supernova (Type 1a) are harder to detect beyond 50-100 lys. Makes more sense.

 

[MAGolding]

Are the multiple Mr. Atoz's possible time aberrations of the same man, and not just clones/holographic duplicates/etc.? It is a time traveling society with the Library seemingly a protected zone against time changes, so why not? This was never really explained in the episode.


It seems that Beta Niobe is a super massive star going into its supernova phase. Kirk's log says that there is only one satellite in the system, planet Sarpeidon, so, in doesn't appear to be a binary star system feeding one star into a Type 1a nova unless he neglected to mention its companion star or his focus of discussion was only on the one planet in the system and then only because they detected that the planet's population disappeared. The Enterprise is a very busy and in demand ship, so I assume that it would not be assigned to a long term scientific mission to study the nova process. Maybe they were assigned to peek in at the very end, then only to discover the mystery of the sudden population disappearance on Sarpeidon.

Today, the final stage is the most interesting and least scientifically understood. Apparently, a probe or long-range scan of the system detected the supernova process starting (once the star burns off its hydrogen and helium, and starts to burn carbon and oxygen, the process accelerates into eventual core collapse). Knowing the exact mass and composition of the star, the durations of each fuel burn cycles, hence by the 23rd century, Starfleet can predict the supernova explosion to the minute. Nice.

(Reality note: We have identified all the hypergiant and supergiant star candidates for supernova in our corner of the galaxy, and only two within 4000 lys have a chance to explode anytime soon, with "soon" within the next 100,000 years. Scientific American reports that astronomers have identified the best candidate yet for our galaxy's next supernova explosion, according to a new report. If restricting the exploration limit in the 1000 ly range, then none are predicted to explode over the next 300 years. Findings published in the February 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal suggest that Rho Cassiopeia, located 10,000 light-years away from earth, is most likely to run out of fuel and meet a violent fate in the near future. Other reports that Eta Carinae (which is also in a binary star system) is about 7,500 lys from Earth, in the very last stages of its life, could literally go supernova at any second. But these may also live hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands more years before it does so.)

Based on real science, Beta Niobe is probably a white dwarf star in binary star getting ready to explode due to accumulation of mass from its smaller companion (Alpha Niobe? ). These type supernova (Type 1a) are harder to detect beyond 50-100 lys. Makes more sense.

I quote from the transcript:

Captain's log, Stardate 5943.7. We have calculated that Beta Niobe will go nova in approximately three and a half hours. Its only satellite, Sarpeidon, is a Class M planet, which at last report was inhabited by a civilised humanoid species. Now our instruments show that no intelligent life remains on the planet.

Kirk says nova, not supernova. So there is no reason to suppose that Beta Niobe will be a Type I supernova, a Type II supernova, a Type III supernova, a Type IV supernova, or any other type of supernova that might exist. The evidence in "All Our yesterdays" is that Beta Niobe will be a plain old nova and not a supernova.

So we should imagine that Sarpeidon orbits a star which fits the current scientific specifications for becoming a nova.

 

[Henoch]

Kirk says nova, not supernova. So there is no reason to suppose that Beta Niobe will be a Type I supernova

I confused the standard nova with the Type 1a supernova (both are white dwarf stars sucking mass from a companion star).

 

[johnnybear]

The road accident only happened because she and Kirk were on their way to movies, then Kirk dashed off to meet McCoy, started shouting excitedly causing enough distraction for Edith to cross the road without looking first.
Without Kirk, Spock and McCoy's joyful reunion, why would the accident even have happened?

I suppose there could have been another road accident where Edith absent mindedly wandered across the road and another bad driver cut her down - anything's possible!

Agreed! Edith had to die to enable earth's future and travel into outer space! Maybe she died after visiting that Clark Gable movie and was so starstruck by him that she didn't see the truck bearing down on her!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

Was the reason the Enterprise turned up with only 3 1/2 hours to spare because the signs of the supernova were only noticed in real space?
By then it was too late for the Federation to mount a rescue even at Warp speed?
I'm assuming that it was noticed sometime beforehand on the planet as it would have taken them years to all decide and then to leave.

On Sarpeidon itself the population had been working towards this very moment probably since each person arrived into the past! That way the technology would be available to the people of the time of the Supernova! Although the Atavachron would also be misused by various dictators over time like Zor Khan the Tyrant who exiled poor Zarabeth into the icy wastes of the distant past!
JB

 

[Mytran]

Agreed! Edith had to die to enable earth's future and travel into outer space! Maybe she died after visiting that Clark Gable movie and was so starstruck by him that she didn't see the truck bearing down on her!
JB

Yeah, thinking about it she was pretty easily distracted! Remember that tumble she took down the stairs?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

On Sarpeidon itself the population had been working towards this very moment probably since each person arrived into the past! That way the technology would be available to the people of the time of the Supernova! Although the Atavachron would also be misused by various dictators over time like Zor Khan the Tyrant who exiled poor Zarabeth into the icy wastes of the distant past!
JB

That's right. All we saw of contemporary Sarpeidon was one guy and one branch office of the Library.

The planet's history must be so insanely messed up, we should be thankful they were not a star-faring people. All of their damage to the timeline was confined to their own isolated world, where I'd say whole civilizations were popping in and out of existence like soap bubbles. And the Library kept looking back and recording new ones for people to chose from.

 

[Henoch]

On Sarpeidon itself the population had been working towards this very moment probably since each person arrived into the past! That way the technology would be available to the people of the time of the Supernova! Although the Atavachron would also be misused by various dictators over time like Zor Khan the Tyrant who exiled poor Zarabeth into the icy wastes of the distant past!
JB

A time machine that can't go into the future is only half a time machine. Of course, if it did go into the future, all you'd find was a burned out rock for a world. Maybe this is how the Sarpeidons discovered their world was doomed.

 

[johnnybear]

Temporal projections by the Atavachron so many lifetimes earlier or so I guess!
JB