ValentineMichaelSmith Posted March 15, 2018 Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 When looking at the orbits of Roshar's moons, I had an idea that may account for the highly elliptical shape of all three (which may have already been discussed but I didn't see anything in the previous threads). If the planet had been moved in one direction or another, the moons would have no choice but to follow, however they would "lag" behind creating more elliptical orbits.Then, a little further... It looks to me in the map of the Rosharan system that if the above were true, the lunar orbits result from Roshar moving away from Ashyn, as if something were shot out of a cannon from Ashyn to Roshar knocking the latter away (maybe hitting the area which is now the Shattered Plains? though I guess I would expect more of a crater than a shattering of rock). Side note: are the erratic seasons that Roshar experiences due to the elliptical orbits of its moons introducing a somewhat chaotic wobble of the planet's rotational axis? This would lead to a rather rapid change in seasons as, unlike Earth's seasons being due to the revolution around our sun so that either the northern or southern hemisphere is closer, a change in the tilt of the axis of rotation would result in the same. And if I did something wrong in this post ruleswise/otherwise please let me know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara Posted March 15, 2018 Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 Here is a very technical thread about the moon orbits Also, I think the moons are far too small to affect Roshar that way. They're about the size of Mars' moons, rather than ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValentineMichaelSmith Posted March 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 Thanks! I actually had seen that topic which had made me think some more about it. I guess it just seemed like the only reasonable explanation (to me!) for the high variability in the seasons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shqueeves Posted March 16, 2018 Report Share Posted March 16, 2018 17 minutes ago, ValentineMichaelSmith said: Thanks! I actually had seen that topic which had made me think some more about it. I guess it just seemed like the only reasonable explanation (to me!) for the high variability in the seasons About the seasons, Brandon has said this Quote nnneeeerrrrddd Over a long enough timeline would Roshar's "random" seasonal pattern show an actual predictable pattern, or is it truly random? Brandon Sanderson I think I know what you're getting at, and if so, you're right. But just to answer the question: temperature variation on Roshar doesn't follow much of a pattern, and is relatively small in variance. It's caused by the blowing of the storms, so over the long term, looking VERY hard, you could probably find some patterns. They'd be related to the frequency and strength of storms during that time of year. source I could've sworn that there was one about Roshar's planetary tilt being basically inexistant, but I can't find it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValentineMichaelSmith Posted March 16, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2018 Ah ok that makes sense, I guess my idea of seasons gets thrown right out the window when considering a highstorm, thanks for the WoB I don't think I had seen that one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leyrann Posted March 16, 2018 Report Share Posted March 16, 2018 Yeah, Roshar barely has any axial tilt. Also, the moons are much smaller than our moon (approx. 100 km in diameter), which to me makes it unlikely they would have any significant effect on Roshar's tilt, particularly on such a short time frame. I even doubt they cause significant tides. And if Roshar got knocked away from Ashyn, then how is it now in a stable orbit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xaladin Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 @ValentineMichaelSmith FWIW I believe the word you are looking for is eccentricity of the elliptical orbits. A circle is an ellipse with eccentricity 0. An ellipse can have eccentricity between 0 and 1. Higher eccentricity gives you the other conic sections. The following wiki article may be helpful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eccentricity_(mathematics) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 On 3/16/2018 at 6:00 AM, Leyrann said: Yeah, Roshar barely has any axial tilt. Also, the moons are much smaller than our moon (approx. 100 km in diameter), which to me makes it unlikely they would have any significant effect on Roshar's tilt, particularly on such a short time frame. I even doubt they cause significant tides. And if Roshar got knocked away from Ashyn, then how is it now in a stable orbit? They're even smaller than that. Phobos and Demos are less than 14 miles in diameter (22 and 12 km), and Brandon/Peter have said Roshar's moons are about the size of those guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leyrann Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 6 minutes ago, RShara said: They're even smaller than that. Phobos and Demos are less than 14 miles in diameter (22 and 12 km), and Brandon/Peter have said Roshar's moons are about the size of those guys. That was discussed in the Moons of Roshar topic, in the end it seemed most likely that they were somewhat bigger than Phobos and Deimos, hence the biggest (iirc) being 100 km in diameter. What I personally find very interesting, is that this is significantly under the threshold where an object becomes rounded by it's own gravity (400-700 km in diameter depending on composition, iirc) yet they're never mentioned as having any shape at all, while I would assume that if the three moons had different shapes, that would get mentioned. In fact, in the artwork we have, they're displayed as round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cometaryorbit Posted March 19, 2018 Report Share Posted March 19, 2018 They might be round due to being artificial, but it's not impossible for a small natural celestial body to be round -- just very weird, as it would require the material to have basically no structural strength. Saturn's tiny [much smaller than Phobos/Deimos] moon Methone is a very smooth egg shape - which probably means it is essentially made of snowflakes. Roshar moons are too warm for that, but maybe dust? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isilel Posted March 19, 2018 Report Share Posted March 19, 2018 I can't be the only who thinks that Roshar's moons may be huge spaceships? I used to think that they were the means by which the Ashynites arrived, but trawling through the WoBs I saw that Sanderson appears to lean towards Oathgate-like mechanics for their exodus, although nothing is certain and canonized yet. However, there are numerous hints in SA that humans came to Roshar in several waves of migration from different worlds and by different means. I am really curious about all the Listener lore that we can expect to learn in Book 4 - will we find out that according to their legends there used to be a time when Roshar didn't have moons? Or had less than 3, perhaps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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