A general question about the 12 colonies...

[Mav]

Let's also not forget the relativity of stars and light. The stars we see in the night sky, appear to be right next to us, in Earth's solar system. In reality alot of them are millions of light years away, not even in our solar system, yet we can still see their light.

 

Maybe that's how it was for Earth in BSG. Since the 13th colony was on Earth, we could see our other colonies in the night sky. Let's not forget the scriptures in BSG said the 13th colony was seperate from the 12, both physically and politically. Their society left the other colonies. So it would make sense for Earth to be far from the other 12 colonies even if they were still visible to us in the night sky.

[Vyperion]

Firefly had 'dozens of planets and hundreds of moons' that were terraformed. Yes there's a narrow natural habitation ring around a sun which Earth glides inside but the key is finding the right balance between solar distance, planetsize and atmospheric density/consistency.

 

The way I understaood it was the nextdoor system that each of the colonies was nearby each other.

 

Starcharts are also symbolic. Standing on Earth we see Virgo, Leo, Saggitarius, etc. but even moving to the next closest sytem, Centauri (5 light years away) changes what you see in the sky at night. Like in Stargate (the movie) the stars changed when they went to Abidos because their position in the universe had changed too.

[magestorm]

Yes. However, in Firefly, most of those were teraformed, to make them habitable.

 

This could also be the case in Battlestar Galactica. Shoot, you could easily terraform a moon around a gas giant that lays in a habitable zone around a star.

[magestorm]

I started watching the series from the very beginning. In the end of the miniseries, the Priestess running the memorial service mentions 12 colonies, but that they were guided to 5 planets.

 

It is entirely possible that each planet could have 2-3 colonies on each planet.

 

On the copy I have, it is time index 2:39:40 when she starts the service, and 2:40:15 when she discusses the tribes and worlds.

[Hilander72]

The stars could also be located in a very dense starcluster where the distance between stars are much less than a lightyear. And have there ever been a reference to what the max speed the Vipers/Battlestars/Transports can achieve?

 

In the original series (1978) the Vipers accelerate to Faster Than Light speed (FTL), still takes time to get anywhere, and the fleet/battlestars doesn't have instantenious jump capabilities, but that can't be compared with the new battlestar, can it...

[magestorm]

Well, let's see in our own solar system.

 

Venus could have become another Earth, if conditions would have been different. Mars is close, and with teraforming, could become an Earthlike planet. Also, look at Titan. If it was closer to the sun, it would be another Earth.

 

That's 4 possibilities, and that is just in our own solar system. It would be entirely possible for the Lords of Kobol to terraform planets into habitable worlds. Therefore, the idea that these planets have to be in seperate star systems is just not so.