One of the side effects of science
or rather the use of 'ideal' situations that we can understand more easily than practical solutions.
I've always worried about the use of 1as for marking distance - the caveat on 1as being a standard luminosity is that they dont rotate too fast - and the normal method of creation is accretion from a nearby star which will inevitably lead to incredibly high spins - possibly in the region where the pressure in the dwarf is reduced allowing far more matter to be accreted before detonation.
I should add that the recent gravity wave detection supports the use of 1as from mergers.
But assuming spheres is always going to cause problems in the busy realms of space.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
