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Re: Extrasolar Systems of the 22nd Century
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 7:25 am
by NoXion
Summary Report
on the star system of
Proxima Centauri
OVERVIEW
The Proxima Centauri system is centred around a small red dwarf star 4.22 light years from Sol - a stone's throw in galactic terms, but a years-long journey even with the latest revolutionary technology. The probe confirmed that the Proxima system, like Sol, possesses an Oort Cloud of dormant cometary nuclei, although one apparently more depleted due to long-term gravitational interactions with the nearby Alpha Centauri binary system. As it turns out, being a dwarf star turns out to present no problems for planetary formation, possessing as it does no less than 17 planets, starting from the innermost:
Bester
Bester is the innermost of a pair of planets (see below), and is the third readily-habitable world to be found outside the Solar system. It is tidally locked, so the sunlight on Bester is a constant dependant on one's position on the planet. Most of the day side is taken up by a massive perpetually sunbaked desert, while the constant night side sports a large ice cap of frozen water. Most of the planet's biomass and liquid water is concentrated along the twilight band encircling the planet.
Unterra
Unterra is another tidally locked planet, sharing Bester's orbit in its Lagrange 3 point. Unlike Bester, Unterra's biomes are limited to single-celled life and its atmosphere is scarcely breathable, although the night-side ice cap is relatively larger providing plenty of atmospheric material for potential terraformers.
Bester and Unterra's relative positions
Lif
Lif is a small rocky planet rich in metals, with considerable paraterraforming potential due to orbital distance.
Epi
This gas giant has a highly elliptical orbit, with the resulting temperature swings creating a violently windy atmosphere. Aside from the interesting colours created by a mixture of complex organic chemicals, Epi's atmosphere is rich in helium-3 fusion fuel.
Aresca
This world could be considered a cousin of Mars twice removed. Although it possesses a thicker atmosphere and presents a different range of surface geology, it's small size and the nature of its formation lead it to having some very Mars-like properties internally speaking - there is evidence of recent volcanic activity in the vein of that ancient planet's emanations.
Dis
The planet of Dis is characterised by large oceans of hydrocarbon ooze separated by rocky highlands. Believed by planetologists to be a hotter, "drier" version of Titan.
Dat
This small airless ball of rock and ice represents the singular natural satellite of Dis.
Lifthrasir
Although unassuming from orbit, the planet of Lifthrasir is a world of ethereal beauty from the surface. Soft beige light bathes a landscape carved by the wind and twisted by a bubbling vulcanism powered by crustal hot-spots. While the atmosphere is oppressively dense like on Venus before terraformation, Lifthrasir's distance from its stellar primary means the greenhouse effect is correspondingly muted.
Kretus
Kretus marks the beginning of the outer reaches of the Proxima Centauri star system, having a dynamic, windy atmosphere with many lightning storms that can be seen on the night side from orbit. Like the outer gas giants around Sol, Kretus has a number of large terrestrial moons.
Haperak
The innermost moon of Kretus, Haperak is a highly volcanic world constantly squeezed and stretched by tidal interactions with its parent body. It has a deep but not dense sulphurous atmosphere, and its thin crust occasionally develops weak spots where lakes of magma collect themselves.
Asjuill
This icy moon has a thick crust of ice surmounting a global ocean of liquid water, much like Europa. The similarity of bodies found to those found orbiting Sol has lead many planetologists to hypothesise universal laws of planetary formation.
Gelidian
Sulcia
Asimov
Bradbury
Skoll
Clarke
Hati
Demeter
Starlight
Starlight's most puzzling features are the scattered lights that can be seen in the above image across the nightside. The Probe has been unable to determine if they are natural or artificial, as from orbit they contain features of both.
Fenris
Radia
Arctarcticus
The outermost planet of the Proxima system, Arctarcticus is so far from it's stellar primary that it gets pretty much equal amounts of dim light from both it's orbital parent as well as the nearby Alpha Centauri system.
Lunarcticus
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Not a whole lot of detail (but I will provide more if the game needs it, say if someone colonises one of the bodies), but I hope you like the pretty pictures.
Re: Extrasolar Systems of the 22nd Century
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 7:45 am
by Red Commissar
OOC: Just got to say, I wish my space engine stuff looked nice like you have in your screenshots
Re: Extrasolar Systems of the 22nd Century
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 7:50 am
by NoXion
Do you mean
Space Engine? I think that program is damn pretty, especially since it can simulate planetary surfaces better than the program I'm currently using,
Celestia.
Celestia's free by the way, so if you can run Space Engine then you can certainly run that.
Re: Extrasolar Systems of the 22nd Century
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 8:20 am
by Red Commissar
NoXion wrote:Do you mean
Space Engine? I think that program is damn pretty, especially since it can simulate planetary surfaces better than the program I'm currently using,
Celestia.
Celestia's free by the way, so if you can run Space Engine then you can certainly run that.
Yeah, I know it's space engine. I'm just saying I wish it looked nice, I can never really quite get the settings to what people have when they take screenshots. Mine don't usually look as nice as I've seen with others, but then again I don't happen upon some of the nicer procedural planets that get generated.
I have Celestia too, but you can't get some of the weird planets on there since it's based on what's known, doesn't have the procedural stuff that space engine has (as far as I know at least).
Re: Extrasolar Systems of the 22nd Century
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 8:32 am
by NoXion
Red Commissar wrote:Yeah, I know it's space engine. I'm just saying I wish it looked nice, I can never really quite get the settings to what people have when they take screenshots. Mine don't usually look as nice as I've seen with others, but then again I don't happen upon some of the nicer procedural planets that get generated.
I've played around with it a bit, and I think that even if you don't see anything unusual it's still pretty cool - I don't know of any other program that allows you to stand on a planet orbiting a star in some far-away galaxy, and look down a valley and watch that star set between realistic-looking mountains.
I have Celestia too, but you can't get some of the weird planets on there since it's based on what's known, doesn't have the procedural stuff that space engine has (as far as I know at least).
Celestia doesn't use procedural generation, and objects on a planet's surface have to be defined with the appropriate files, otherwise a planet's surface is totally smooth once you zoom in beyond any bump maps. But, there are plenty of fictional/fanciful
add-ons to be found.
If I could work out how to import Celestia add-ons into Space Engine, I might switch over completely. But for now, I think Space Engine would be more useful as a resource for later games.
Re: Extrasolar Systems of the 22nd Century
Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 1:12 pm
by NoXion
Nemesis
Nemesis is a brown dwarf star, being too small to fuse hydrogen or helium, and being barely large enough to fuse deuterium. It is debated whether Nemesis is gravitationally involved with Sol and to what degree - some astronomers say that Nemesis is a distantly orbiting partner of the Sun, while others insist that it is too far away to be under much influence and is merely passing the Solar system by.
Diablo
This is the innermost planet of the Nemesis system, and observations thus far indicate that this planet is analogous to Mercury in the Solar system, and like that planet Diablo is well placed to become a net exporter of energy and resources.
Mephisto
This is a Venus-like planet which the ROSSO colonists are intending to terraform in the long term. At the moment it has boiling hot surface conditions of 200 degrees C, and a highly dense atmosphere composed largely of carbon dioxide.
Baal
The only gas giant planet gracing this system, Baal is small enough to be considered in a class of its own, the tentatively-classified "gas dwarfs". This class of planetary body has a significant gaseous envelope, but have a diameter significantly smaller than the class planets like Neptune and Uranus belong to.
Re: Extrasolar Systems of the 22nd Century
Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:03 pm
by NoXion
Toliman A
Toliman A is the nearest Sun-like star to the Solar system at 4.36 lightyears distance, forming one half of a gravitational binary with a slightly smaller and cooler partner with it's own planetary system yet to be fully mapped.
Episolar Belt
Toliman A has a fairly substantial belt of asteroids closer to it than any planet. The asteroids in this belt have been subject to millions and billions of years of intense stellar radiation, which has generated unique mineralogical conditions within them which will repay closer study.
Asbolos
This small, rocky and hot planet is somewhat akin to Mercury in structure, however it bears significant iron oxide deposits on the surface, indicating a metal-rich crust.
Hel
Hel by name, hell by nature. This planet has significant volcanic activity leading to the formation of lakes and small seas of molten lava. The atmosphere is a poisonous brew of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and methane. It's active geology makes it rich in metamorphic rocks and various minerals.
Heimdal
Svartalheim
Vanaheim
This hot desert planet shares some geophysical characteristics with Mars, possessing a relatively thick crust able to support truly massive volcanoes, which on Svartalheim are still active thanks to its larger mass.
Vanir
Polyphonte
Orius
Agrios
Nessus
Muspelheim
Midgard
Yggdrasil
Ghellhonus
Amycos
Eurytion
Mnesimache
Asgard
Teleboas
Jotunheim
Thor
Wodan
Freya
Pholus