From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph@earthlink.net>
Subject: (whorl) When did the Whorl arrive?
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 17:40:11 

mantis wrote:
 
> In OBW, the Rajan goes over some of the same stuff we've gone over with
> regard to how Quetzal got onto the Whorl, that is, "in what year" and "by
> what method."
> 
> The Rajan ends by figuring that the Whorl must have been just hanging
> around in the system for 100 years (detail also matches Pas's planned
> timeframe, such as we know).  This means that the flight-time was only
> around 200 years.

But the 100 years is not the time the Whorl has been in the system, but
the Rajan's guess at the interval between Whorl-Green conjunctions (and
even this guess is based on the hypothesis that Quetzal flew to the
Whorl during such a conjunction, which the Rajan apparently no longer
regards as the most likely possibility).

The Rajan's actual estimate of the length of time since Quetzal appeared
on the Whorl, and hence the minimum time the Whorl has been in the
system, is 68 years.

--Adam

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