Sawyers World

Sawyers World

The original name was "Sawyer's World", with an apostrophe. This was later dropped. The dropped-apostrophe is common in many place names.

A habitable (terraformed) planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, (Alpha Centauri A II)

First extra-solar planet settled by humans (but not first landed upon, see Kakuloa). The very early history of this is detailed in the book Alpha Centauri: Sawyer's World, although the actual naming doesn't take place until Alpha Centauri: The Return.

Cities

• Largest city: Sawyer City

Clock and Calendar

Time

• Year: 631.11 local days (so 631 days and a leap year every 9th year), 677.13 Earth days. (About 10 days shorter than a Martian year.)
• Rotation: 25h 44m 17s (solar, ie noon to noon)
• Calendar: week = 5 26-hour days plus 2 25-hour days, with every 4th weekend having an extra hour.
  • 12 months, 5 of 52 days, 7 of 53 days, similar alternating pattern as Earth western calendar months.
  • Alternate one: 21 months, 10 of 29 days, 11 of 31 days, alternating.
  • Alternate two: 21 months, 20 of 30 days, 1 (last of the year) of 31 days.
  • Earth calendar and time (UTC -- which is now becoming truly universal) is also maintained for reference (file timestamps, etc.)

Physical Characteristics

Size

• Radius: slightly larger than Earth, about 1.05 E, 8400 miles diameter (8320 miles)
• Density: slightly lower than Earth, about 5.2 gm/cm3, similar to Venus (5.23 gm/cm3)
• Gravity: slightly lower than Earth, about 0.99 g (9.7 m/sec2) (0.986 g, 9.682 m/sec2)

(But escape velocity slightly higher, due to 1/r-squared: 11.42 km/sec vs 11.18 km/sec, and get a 0.41 km/sec boost from rotation at equator (vs 0.44 on Earth)

• • Specifically, Ve = 11.49 km/sec, rotation boost = 0.45 km/sec at equator, 0.32 at 45 deg lat.

Sources

• The Chara Talisman ("we're here 26 hours a day")
• Alpha Centauri: First Landing (discussion of planetary parameters on initial survey)
• Alpha Centauri: Sawyer's World