"NIGHTFALL" by Isaac Asimov
Lecture by Prof. Jayant Murthy, Senior Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore
Nightfall is usually considered to be the best science fiction short story ever written. It is set on the planet Lagash in a system with 5 suns. As a result, there is never any darkness except for one day every 2049 years when a combination of planetary motions results in darkness covering the entire planet. Civilization collapses in fire and has to be built again from scratch. Asimov, himself, did not worry about the plausibility of the system but, given the large variety in extra-solar systems, the lecture dwells into the question if such a system would be stable.
The lecture describes the background to the story and then our efforts to find a plausible system, which is now referenced in the Wikipedia article on Nightfall.
Пікірлер: 8
Enlightening. Thanks professor.
Read both, the short story and the book in my youth. Very good talk, I've learned lots of things about Asimov, Arthur Clarke and science fiction in general.
Muchas gracias por compartir, saludos de Tijuana, MX.
read the original short story in high school and recently found the expanded novel by Robert Silverberg while thrifting. so glad I stumbled into this lecture!
Got a Nerd-gasm from this! I have read Nightfall, the short story. I have always wondered what the Nightfall Star System might look like! This was... really awesome. :)
@biswasen536
4 жыл бұрын
There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy [science].
Murder at the ABA
Too lengthy