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Interview #1052: WOR Signing Table Q&A, Entry #11

Leiyan

Can you tell me the order of the three planets in the solar system?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

Leiyan

Because I know Braize is the third one, I’ve heard that, is that true?

Brandon Sanderson

I’m staying closed-lipped about a lot of this.

Leiyan

Can you tell me which is the most massive moon [of Roshar]? Not the biggest, but the most massive.

Brandon Sanderson

I think the biggest is the most massive. All three moons are much closer than our moon is.

Leiyan

And so is that Nomon?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Leiyan

How big is Nomon on the night sky, like compared to our moon?

Brandon Sanderson

Larger than our moon, but not dominating of the sky. […] I do believe Nomon is bigger, but I had to have Peter run those calculations, so he may come back and say no Brandon, that’s not possible, but I do believe it’s bigger than our moon in the sky. You’re supposed to be able to see moderately well by Nomon.

Leiyan

So I had some things I figured out, I just wanted to know if they’re true or not. So I have that the orbits of the moons would precess so that the farthest point is always pointing towards the sun.

Brandon Sanderson

So, one more time.

Leiyan

[uses diagram to explain the question]

Brandon Sanderson

So, we have figured all this out. It’s in the wiki–so me just saying–it’s not in the wiki that you can find. I would need to go compare this. All the calculations on things like this–this is stuff where I sat down with Peter, who knows much more astronomy than me and said “here’s what I want” and he’s like “well it has to be this” and I put that in.

Leiyan

Do you know, do the moons orbit the opposite direction to Roshar’s rotation?

Brandon Sanderson

I believe they do but I’m not 100% sure.

Leiyan

There’s no eclipses as far as I can tell, so the plane of the orbit must be strongly inclined, ‘cause there’d be an eclipse every day if there were eclipses-

Brandon Sanderson

We had to fudge that because as you said, if there were any it’d be all the time.

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