APPENDIX 1

 

Cosmological

 

Star A (later known as Freyr) once had a companion star (Star C).

Eight million years before the narrated events, Star B (later known as Batalix) came within the gravitational field of Star A. In the orbital disturbances which followed, Star C escaped entirely, while Star B was captured. Henceforth, it formed the inferior partner of a binary system. The properties of the binary suns are as follows:

 

STAR A

 

Mass	14.8 mass of Sol (Earth’s sun)
Luminosity	60,000 X solar luminosity
Temperature	11,000 Kelvin
Radius	65 X radius of Sol or 28,112. 500 miles
Spectral class	A type supergiant
Colour	white

 

Star A is between 10 and 11 million years old. It has evolved away from the main sequence and is already entering old age.

At the time of its capture of Star B, it was less luminous but hotter. So for the first million years or so after capture, the planets of Star B were subjected to far more UV radiation than at present. X-ray and UV radiation resulted in accelerated evolution of present species.

Star A evolved no planetary system. Orbiting stellar debris was drawn into it and consumed.

 

STAR B

 

Mass	0.96 X mass of Sol
Luminosity	0.8 X solar luminosity
Temperature	5600 K
Radius	0.94 X radius or 406,550 miles
Spectral class	A type supergiant
Colour	white

 

 

Star B has four planets in orbit. They are, working from inner to outer, Copaise, Aganip, HELLICONIA, and Ipocrene.

In the period before Star B’s capture, a moon was in orbit about Helliconia which was lost during the disruption of capture.

 

 

Figure 1. Birth of a new binary system.

A shows the solar system of Star B (Batalix) and its four planets coming close to a binary system consisting of a large A type supergiant star, Star A (Freyr), and its companion, the G type star, Star C. Disturbance begins.

B shows resulting gravitational disruptions, causing Star C to “escape”, as the Star B system is drawn into Star A’s influence. The moon of one of the planets of Star B (Helliconia) is lost to the system, drifting away in the general direction of Star C.

C shows that now a new binary system has been formed. Star B and its attendant planets are in orbit about the supergiant Star A.

 

Locations

 

As located from Earth, the binary system of stars A and B lies in the constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent-Bearer). The main body of a dark dust cloud lies close to the neighbouring constellation of Scorpius, at a distance of 700 light years from Earth. It conceals a cluster of comparatively young stars, with Star A among them.

Star A is just north of Antares. Location: Right Ascension 16h 25m. Declination: -24° 30’.

Helliconia’s first designation on terrestrial charts: Planet G4 PBX/4582-4-3.

 

Helliconia’s Composition

 

Helliconia is a planet with roughly terrestrial properties.

 

Radius	4800 miles
Circumference	30,159 miles
Mean density	4.09
Mass	Equivalent to 1.28 Earth’s mass

Axial inclination of rotation axis to the plane of orbit 55°

This compares with about 66° for Earth

This widens the range of temperatures within climatic zones.

 

The atmospheric composition varied slightly from pre-capture to post-capture. A greater amount of carbon dioxide in the air, pre-capture, produced a mean temperature of -7°C. After capture, and at periastron (when Star B and planets are at their closest to Star A) some of this atmospheric CO₂ combined with water to form carbonate rocks.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is thus reduced, so too the benefit of a ‘greenhouse’ effect is reduced, yielding a mean temperature of +10°C.

In other words, pre-capture conditions were better than might be expected, while post-capture conditions are more severe.

 

Orbital Motions

 

Helliconia’s “Small Year”, that is to say its annual orbit about its parent Star B, is equal to 1.42 Earth years.

The motions of stars A and B are such that B orbits A in the equivalent of 2592 Earth years. Star B, in accordance with Kepler’s laws, moves in its orbit at a varying speed, slowing as it reaches the most distant point (apastron) from Star A, speeding up when it nears Star A (at periastron). In consequence, its planets, Helliconia included, spend less time enjoying maximum energy than they do receiving minimum energy.

Fig. 2 shows the “Great Year” of Helliconia about the giant primary, where t = time in Earth years from apastron.

It is the Great Year which has predominant influence over Helliconia’s climate, and Star A which provides most of Helliconia’s heat and energy.

 

 

Figure 2. Orbit

 

The x₁ to x₂ sector marks the 500 E years of deepest winter on either side of apastron.

The y₁ to y₂ sector marks the period at periastron when Star A appears brighter than Star B in Helliconia’s skies.

Points V₁, V₂, and V₃, indicate approximately the periods in which the three books of the volume are set.

 

The time from 311 to 633 E years marks a period of fairly rapid improvement in climatic conditions. After that, a slow warming process sets in towards periastron. From 1929 E years, a fairly rapid decline takes place. On either side of apastron is a period of over five E centuries when the climate is either severe or unsettled; a minor ice age is either building up or else in slow decline. This contrasts with a more brief 238 E years of high summer, over periastron.

 

The orbits of the four Star B planets are at the following (E) distances from their primary:

 

Copaise 0.31AU	Aganip 0.82AU
Helliconia 1.26AU	Ipocrene 1.53AU

 

An Avernian shrine stands on Aganip (Bk.2 x), it marks the spot where the 512 future occupants of the Avernus satellite were housed during the construction of the Earth Observation Station.

 

HELLICONIA’S MOON

 

The Helliconian satellite lost during the period of capture was known to the phagors as T’Sehn-Hrr. It holds the key to one of the discomfitting secrets of human life on Helliconia. (The truth is uncovered by Sartorilrvrash in Vol.2, XXI, to his detriment.)

Helliconian humans divide their small year of 480 days into weeks and tenners. One week is eight days. One tenner is 6 weeks (i.e. 48 days). So the year is divided into ten equal parts.

 

AVERNUS AS SATELLITE

 

Avernus is a satellite placed in orbit about Helliconia by the terrestrial expedition. It is designated Earth Observation Station. Its function is to relay data on all facets of Helliconia back to Earth. To the inhabitants of Helliconia, the OES is known as Kaidaw, because of its perceived rapid motion against the stars.

Avernus has an almost circular circumpolar orbit, its mean distance above planetary surface being:

 

Orbital radius measured from centre of planet	5731 miles
Orbital period	2hrs 9mins 30 secs
Shape: spherical – Diameter	0.62 miles
Mass	18,000,000 tonnes (1.8 X 1010 Kg)

 

Depending on the latitude of an observer, Avernus takes about 20-24 minutes to cross the sky, from rising to setting. From the ground, its maximum angular diameter when overhead presents 137.5 seconds of arc. Inhabitants can observe Avernus undergoing rather complex phases when it is passing overhead.

 

Some Avernus History

 

When the starship from earth was closing into orbit about Star B, 512 colonists were hatched, almost full-grown (i.e. as late adolescents). The DNA of fertilized human egg cells were computer-stored in nanowombs. The colonists were reared in six “families” or clans, each destined for specific duties.

Once they had been landed at a base on Aganip, automated construction units began the building of the EOS, using local stellar material. Owing to difficulties and set-backs, construction took eight E-years. The colonists were then ferried to their new home on Avernus to begin an intensive study of Helliconia.

Information transmitted back to Earth takes a thousand years to reach its target. So the early signals sent in Spring are received on Earth in approximately AD 6344.

By the time of “Helliconia Summer”, Avemus has been in orbit for thirty-two E-centuries. Its population now numbers close to 6000 people. Copulation is taught from the age of eight, but all procreation is by extra-uterine birth.

Among the six clans, the PIN family is the “Cross-Continuity Family”. Its duty is to follow the unfolding of one or two Helliconian family groupings through generations over the cycle of a Great Year (60 generations).

The GO family deals with questions of theology, philosophy, ontogeny, phylogeny, etc.

The TAN family studies the origins of long-standing quarrels, from personal to national and specific.

As a safety valve against confinement sickness, Avernians can enter a “Helliconia Holiday” lottery; winners are allowed to visit the planet below. This is a one-way ticket.

 

Helliconia and Earth: Relative Dates

 

The colonising starship left Earth in the year AD 2100, arriving in the vicinity of Star B in AD 3600. The journey of 1000 light years took 1500 years to accomplish. Avernus was operative by AD 3608. On the Helliconian Great Year, this is 500 years After Aphelion.

 

In Book 1 Avernus has already been operative for more than a Great Year. i.e. about 2592 + 134 E years = 2726 E years

In Book 2 Avernus operative for a further 543 years = 3269 E years

So dates now will be:

On Earth, AD 6877

On Helliconia, 1177 E years AA

On Avernus, 3269

In Book 3 Avernus operative for a further 696 years = 3965 E Years

So dates now will be:

On Earth, AD 7573

On Helliconia, 1873 E years AA

On Avernus, 3965

 

Myrkwyr is an ominous day in 1873. Freyr sinks below the horizon on the Polar Circle, not to rise again for a further eighteen or so human generations.

 

CALENDARS

 

Helliconian Time reckoned as Earth Time

Helliconia units	Equivalent Earth units
1 small year	480 days or 10 tenners
1 day	25.92 hours
1 hour	1.04 hours (62.4 minutes)
1 minute	1.56 minutes
1 second	0.936 seconds

A Helliconian inhabitant living to the ripe old age of 70 would be 99.4 E years old.

 

The Earth-Avernus method of reckoning Helliconian years is simply to date them After Apastron (AA). On Helliconia itself, various nations have, at various times, their own means of reckoning calendar time. Generally, such calendars begin from the start of the reign of a local despot.

For example, in “Summer” four different calendars are mentioned. Taking these into account, Book 2 opens in

 

(Terrestrial dateline	AD 6877)
Earth years AA	1177
Helliconia year AA “Denniss” calendar	828*
Oldorando-Borlien After Union	381 (some claim 408)
Ancipital year	749**

 

HUMAN AGES COMPARED

 

Because the Small Year on Helliconia is longer than a terrestrial year, age differentials exist.

The following table (years) gives comparable ages of humans on the two planets.

 

Earth	Helliconia
5	3.5
10	7
12	8.45
15	10.56
18	12.67
20	14
22	15.49
25	17.6
30	21
35	24.67
40	28
50	35.21
60	42
70	49
75	52.8
80	56

 

Life spans are longer in summers of the Great Year

 

 

*The legendary King Denniss was ruling in Year 249 before apastron, and foresaw disaster.

His calendar has been discarded.

**The full and correct name of this year in the Ancipital calendar, forged in the ancipital cotcmporal brain, is:

“Year After Small Apotheosis of Great year 5,634,000 Since catastrophe”. That is, since Freyr’s capture of Batalix, some 8,000,280 years previously.