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The black hole Taraxippus is about to enter the solar system. But it’s only a tenth the mass of the sun, and it’s not expected to pass too close to the Earth. What could possibly go wrong? My new novella, PERIHELION SUMMER, 16 April from Tor.com Books.

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Potential for a second story in that universe: After the world is back on its feet and has scienced the hell out of the taraxippos system, they send a few starships there for a Dyson slingshot before it becomes uneconomical. Way, way later, their descendants call home.

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also, maybe I missed it, but shouldn't you see taraxippos lensing part of the sun's light as well, at least as long as it's close?

4:15 PM · May 12, 2019Twitter Web Client

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Why would you think it ever passes almost exactly between the sun and any potential observer?

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not that, but the sun occupies a relatively large part of the sky so an image of it should show up near taraxippus *does the math* okay taraxippus is *really* small and the sun's image would be even smaller than that, so nevermind

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