Lost in Space TV show becomes history

(I've heard it theorized that human space in "Serenity"--no FTL, hundreds of planets, one government--and BSG, with multiple Earth-like planets making up the Twelve Colonies--were in open clusters.)

Serenity (the Movie) pretty explicitly said that it takes place in a single solar system around a large star with ~10 rocky planets, al of which were terraformed. Given the amount of time it took to get between planets, they seem not to have have FTL.

The whole plot of BSG requires FTL (they even explicitly call it that!), and the fact that they go to Earth only a few tens of millions of years ago rather excludes the colonies being in an open cluster.

Generally, the first stars to form in an open cluster are very massive (O/B), which then serve to carve out and compress the molecular cloud, triggering the formation of solar-type (F/G) stars. The Sun was probably born in such a cluster (from Supernovae particles in meteorites), but left it around a billion years after formation. So, intelligent life would have had to develop about four times faster to look out at an open cluster.
 
Serenity (the Movie) pretty explicitly said that it takes place in a single solar system around a large star with ~10 rocky planets, al of which were terraformed. Given the amount of time it took to get between planets, they seem not to have have FTL.

The whole plot of BSG requires FTL (they even explicitly call it that!), and the fact that they go to Earth only a few tens of millions of years ago rather excludes the colonies being in an open cluster.

Generally, the first stars to form in an open cluster are very massive (O/B), which then serve to carve out and compress the molecular cloud, triggering the formation of solar-type (F/G) stars. The Sun was probably born in such a cluster (from Supernovae particles in meteorites), but left it around a billion years after formation. So, intelligent life would have had to develop about four times faster to look out at an open cluster.

1. In the opening narrative of "Serenity," I remember the phrase "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons." I know they don't have FTL--my point is that all these planets are fairly close together, since they can travel to them in sublight speeds.

The movie depicts six worlds that I can recall--the world with the train station getting robbed, the world where they try to dump Simon and River, the world where Inara's monastery is, Haven, Miranda, and where Mr. Universe lives. That doesn't include Londinium and Sinohon (sp?), which might be the Alliance capitals.

2. The plot of BSG requires FTL to travel thousands of light years. In the miniseries, they use FTL because traveling unarmed STL from their current position to Ragnar Ancorage would take them through "the entire Cylon fleet." That seems to state the Twelve Colonies are close together, plus Ron Moore said that having all twelve worlds in a single system was really pushing it scientifically but something he wanted to keep from TOS.

Plus, they came to Earth 150,000 years ago, not tens of millions of years ago. They found early Homo sapiens, not dinosaurs. :)

3. A fair point. I don't really know a whole lot about open clusters beyond the fact that the stars are closer together.
 
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