Alternate Planets, Suns, Stars, and Solar Systems Thread
- Thread starter Pragmatic Progressive
- Start date
I try to counteract the problem by imagining them moving faster.
But how to do this seems more than difficult.
Or they are a moving species that developed intelligence at the same time as (or before) photosynthesis.
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How about a blue main sequence star? Greater irradiance means more energy per square meter at the surface of the planet. I’m not sure any amount can be enough for photosynthesis (either Earth’s or a different chemical analogue) to give the energy required for thought. I mean, it’s sort of a hard question to answer because we only have one data point. There’s a minimum size to a brain capable of sapience, but what are the minimum energy density requirements? That’s a different ballgame. Maybe a species of xenoplants where any of them isn’t any more intelligent than a three year old? That’s about where self-awareness is assured in humans, and it’d be the lowest energy requirement vs. an adult body...
I would suggest the solution would be to just make them only partly photosynthetic.
Regular carnivorous/omnivorous animal that has a symbiotic relationship with a photosynthetic culture along its top/back... that could work.
I came to the same conclusion as you.
As for the other questions I raised, do you also have any advice for me?
I was thinking of Dorzohand's basic worldbuilding way earlier in this thread and was thinking of reviving it in part with more basis in reality. Would anyone be interested in such?
This is what our view of Saturn may have looked like if its ring system were 200 times larger:
Two questions relate to this picture:
Two questions relate to this picture:
- How wide would this be in angular degrees? (For clarification, our sun and moon are half a degree wide each.)
- How much brighter would that make Earth's day/night cycle?
1. https://www.1728.org/angsize.htm is a useful tool for this- you can find angular size given distance and diameter. If the widest easily-visible ring is the F ring, that means that the diameter is ~28,000,000 km; while the distance to Saturn is between 1,200,000,000 km and 1,700,000,000 km. Therefore, the size in degrees is between 1.34 and 0.94 degrees. Note that because of Saturn's angle to the Earth, depending on the year the thinner angle of the ring ellipse is between something like 0.6x and 0x that figure.
2. Difficult to say. Not much more than a few moons, certainly. The albedo of Saturn's rings is about 4 times that of the Moon, and the maximum size of the rings is also 4 times the size of the moon. At best? Maybe enough to kick the night into civil twilight.
For the last few days I've been working on a 4972 x 2518 terraformed venus map, refined from a much smaller one. Admittedly this wasn't all my work, and I would like to thank user Artienia, as I combined the work from their 2 seemingly abandoned attempts at such a map into a starting point, found in these 2 links:
I simply filled in the remaining 50% (estimate) of the map.
I hope this can be useful to any mapping projects, and plan to make use of it myself.
Terraformed Venus Q-Bam Project
Hello AH.com community! I am back with an other map project which is 90% useless After the QT-map's somewhat success and the Martian Q-bam' completion, my sights is on Venus full map: https://i.imgur.com/ZCmP8MU.png contrary to regular Q-bam maps, the original resolution of the Venus map was...
www.alternatehistory.com
Terraformed Venus Qbam Map Project 2 - Electric Boogaloo
Map is here: Second map is important so look at it. The Unfinished regions are divided into Chunks. In the previous map threat i lost motivation as i didnt have a deadline. Now i do. I have 2 days to finish each chunk and move on. This starts from Apr 5th to June 1st, So expect the map to be...
www.alternatehistory.com
I hope this can be useful to any mapping projects, and plan to make use of it myself.
The International Star Ship Beacon is a generation ship, making the long Journey to Alpha Centauri.
Right so the Captain and Crew (trained for maintenance, food production, etc etc) have long had an advisory council of “colonists” to consult on the running of the ship. However as of late there has been growing discontent with the unelected Captaincy (we’re about half a generation into the voyage). So for the first time, a Council election, based on the subdivisions in each Habitation Ring (which are of roughly equal population).
The Beacon Residents Association is the group supportive of the Captain and the Crew. In fact, the Crew and their families and friends makes up the bulk of the voting base for the BRA. They are very much the status quo party. Doles of Food and Rec time, crack down on illegal activity, and keep the professionals in charge, not the people. Were expected to do well, and coming in 3rd was a major upset.
The Citizen’s Alliance was the major force pushing for Elections in the first place. Reform types to the core. Big on gradual changes, sharing power. Many of them are non-ship management specialists or service providers. Many have some ties to the black market, although that’s pretty well in the open. Favor some liberalization, namely the right to exchange rations with others. Won the most seats, but less than was expected.
MORE is the most radical of the groups running, finding support among those who have found themselves less satisfied with the status quo. In particular those who resent what they see as an overbearing Crew and stifling conditions on the ship. Not so stupid as to think they can just depose the trained managers of the ship’s systems, but are definitely of the opinion civilians should be the top dog. Most popular with ship born kids.
The ship was a joint European-American-Chinese project mostly, and all of those groups are represented fairly well on board. Slight tendencies towards MOVE, CA, BRA respectively but generally all the big players are represented. The other large group are South Asians (mainly Indians but a few other countries as well) who have carved out a strong community in Hab Ring 2. Somewhat parochial and alienated, they’ve formed the South Asian Congress to protect their interests.
True Light is, well, a ship born religion at best, a cult at worst. Believe those aboard are the next stage of evolution, that Alpha Centauri is the ‘true light’ compared to the ‘false sun’ of Earth. A rising force among ship born residents, although its heavily discouraged by the Crew. The fact that it got over 10% of the vote is very concerning to some, although the FPTP system hurt them badly.
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Map of my fictional planet that's about 25% geographic features from the mars worlda.
Map of my fictional planet that's about 25% geographic features from the mars worlda.
The top graphic is a timeline of this world,
the first map shows the rocky barren exposed surface as it was originally discovered by an AI-run drone sent out by the first united human government some millennia from now, this strategy was one enacted to make the galaxy more colonizable i.e. moving asteroids into near-planet orbits or melting glaciers or releasing microbes, they were also engineered to have several smaller drones that could mine asteroids whose material could be converted into further large drones. This planet was considered perfect due to having liquid water on its surface as well as relatively normal soil and an oxygen-rich atmosphere (albeit at a pressure of approximately 2x that of earth). This planet also orbits in a binary system with another planetary body, though the planetary body shown above is 80% the mass of earth while its binary body is closer to 30% though with a stronger magnetosphere than its dominant partner. The third graphic shows this planet when its suns' activity ramped up and as you can see boiled away some of its water and shrunk its ice caps, this also flung off much of its atmosphere though this planet's moon's ecosystem survived. When the first humans reached the planet the planet was covered in dry/arid plants and its moon was covered in dense jungle that had evolved toxicity to life and was more inhospitable to human life than its primary companion despite having greater reserves of water. The first human settlers were strong libertarians, anti-legalist types, and this planet's conditions only strengthened their beliefs that they could survive without big government or bureaucracy. The only rule of law on this world would be local sheriffs living in villages full of what we might call futuristic homesteaders, lots of shrublands and deserts, some temperate climates poleward, and some mediterranean climates in the only parts of this world that experience regular rainfall.
Finally, the 4th graphic shows this world much further into the future, no longer some kind of anarchoprimitivist paradise. The original settlers lived on the planet long enough to genetically engineer themselves to live excellently in the local desert climates, running a few mines/quarries for cement or rare earth minerals. This would ultimately be a double edged sword as when a "united" hyper-legalist human government showed up and began a native american style genocide of the locals due to their conflicting ideologies. The human colonists were shocked by the planet's state after reestablishing clear lines of communication with this region of the galaxy and the "settlers" who had been sent to the region and woken up from cryogenic pods had to adapt to living on orbital habitats (that to this day supply much of the planet's food) in very meritocratic systems. They brought this ideology with them to the planet's surface and the first large civilizations were meritocratic, and yes that is civilizations plural because the fundamental backbone of this human colonization story is that countries don't magically coalesce because of futuristic technology and people still have disagreements. The first major disagreement of this planet was whether to stick to the meritocratic model of a command economy and government enforced class system based on labour and intelligence/output. This was the anti-meritocratic movement and just like real life political movements it wasn't black and white. Meritocratic "civilizations" ranged from the relatively reasonable practice of universal food stamps to the extreme of indentured servitude for those who couldn't meet their quotas, whereas anti-meritocratic civilizations had a much vaster range including space stalinism and assorted nationalism. It is also of note that those of this planet's original inhabitants that survived have gone on to become kingpins of either this planet's black market or anti-meritocratic movement.
I'm writing this all quite sleepy lol, might all sound like nonsense and if so feel free to tell me.
the first map shows the rocky barren exposed surface as it was originally discovered by an AI-run drone sent out by the first united human government some millennia from now, this strategy was one enacted to make the galaxy more colonizable i.e. moving asteroids into near-planet orbits or melting glaciers or releasing microbes, they were also engineered to have several smaller drones that could mine asteroids whose material could be converted into further large drones. This planet was considered perfect due to having liquid water on its surface as well as relatively normal soil and an oxygen-rich atmosphere (albeit at a pressure of approximately 2x that of earth). This planet also orbits in a binary system with another planetary body, though the planetary body shown above is 80% the mass of earth while its binary body is closer to 30% though with a stronger magnetosphere than its dominant partner. The third graphic shows this planet when its suns' activity ramped up and as you can see boiled away some of its water and shrunk its ice caps, this also flung off much of its atmosphere though this planet's moon's ecosystem survived. When the first humans reached the planet the planet was covered in dry/arid plants and its moon was covered in dense jungle that had evolved toxicity to life and was more inhospitable to human life than its primary companion despite having greater reserves of water. The first human settlers were strong libertarians, anti-legalist types, and this planet's conditions only strengthened their beliefs that they could survive without big government or bureaucracy. The only rule of law on this world would be local sheriffs living in villages full of what we might call futuristic homesteaders, lots of shrublands and deserts, some temperate climates poleward, and some mediterranean climates in the only parts of this world that experience regular rainfall.
Finally, the 4th graphic shows this world much further into the future, no longer some kind of anarchoprimitivist paradise. The original settlers lived on the planet long enough to genetically engineer themselves to live excellently in the local desert climates, running a few mines/quarries for cement or rare earth minerals. This would ultimately be a double edged sword as when a "united" hyper-legalist human government showed up and began a native american style genocide of the locals due to their conflicting ideologies. The human colonists were shocked by the planet's state after reestablishing clear lines of communication with this region of the galaxy and the "settlers" who had been sent to the region and woken up from cryogenic pods had to adapt to living on orbital habitats (that to this day supply much of the planet's food) in very meritocratic systems. They brought this ideology with them to the planet's surface and the first large civilizations were meritocratic, and yes that is civilizations plural because the fundamental backbone of this human colonization story is that countries don't magically coalesce because of futuristic technology and people still have disagreements. The first major disagreement of this planet was whether to stick to the meritocratic model of a command economy and government enforced class system based on labour and intelligence/output. This was the anti-meritocratic movement and just like real life political movements it wasn't black and white. Meritocratic "civilizations" ranged from the relatively reasonable practice of universal food stamps to the extreme of indentured servitude for those who couldn't meet their quotas, whereas anti-meritocratic civilizations had a much vaster range including space stalinism and assorted nationalism. It is also of note that those of this planet's original inhabitants that survived have gone on to become kingpins of either this planet's black market or anti-meritocratic movement.
I'm writing this all quite sleepy lol, might all sound like nonsense and if so feel free to tell me.
KB-33000: An History of Men and Stummens
There is no doubt that we come from the stars. It has been thousands of years since our race left its cradle and now spreads across the firmament. The number of systems that our species has discovered since its beginnings is impossible to estimate, and the number of souls living across the celestial vault is immeasurable.
It is bathed in this gigantic interstellar communion that our own System lies, on the periphery of the Revealed Welt where human civilization flourishes. Although far from the distant star of our birth, we continue to thrive under the beneficent rays of a new star, Rachel.
And it is in orbit around her that we, descendants of the ancient explorers, live. It is on our worlds that our forefathers discovered the Stummen, a bipedal plant species that can be forced to work. By the physical strength of their new servants and their own spirit, our ancestors have over several centuries and generations reshaped the planets and moons of Rachel.
Many societies, fiefdoms, crowns and reigns have succeeded each other on these worlds since their discovery centuries ago. And even today this system is called the same as it was by the first travelers: KB-33000.
Incipit from The Stories and Recollections of Gilome Varin, Archontal Historian
Informatic roll representing the KB-33000 System
****
New writing project I just started, set in a solar system where humanity after expanding into space, fragmented before returning to feudalism. By settling on this system it discovers an extraterrestrial species that it enslaves, serving as an economic and military base for humans.
Hapsburg
Banned
Bittrich
Star system: Flecker
World type: Type Ia Gaian Garden
Orbital distance: 1.1 AU
Orbital period: 395.67 Earth Days (1.084 Earth Years)
Radius: 7451.82 km km (1.17 Earth radius)
Day length: 27.25 Earth hours
Natural satellites: 2 (Messer, Busey)
Mass: 1.53 Earth masses
Surface gravity: 1.12 g
Atmospheric pressure: 0.88 atm
Atmospheric composition: 73.1% nitrogen, 17.3% oxygen, 9.6% argon, trace other gases
Hydrosphere: 65% water, 11% ice
Surface temperature: 289 K (16° C)
Governance: Federal Territory, governed by a Lieutenant General or Vice Admiral under military governing authority.
Population: 422 million (permanent, surface); 1.1 billion (total, including recruits undergoing training and temporary duty, and lunar/orbital bases)
Capital: Fort Copper
Largest Settlement: Anderson (pop. 800,000)
A rocky, earth-like world nestled in the Jellyfish Nebula, some 5,000 light years from Earth, Bittrich is the primary recruitment processing and training depot for the Inner Colonies sector, and has been since the latter era of the Terran Empire. It is a garden world home to over four hundred million civilians and servicemembers on a permanent basis. However, over a billion people are present at any given time, most of them soldiers going through training, including lunar and orbital military stations and their supporting settlements. Large parts of the planet are dedicated to military training facilities, proving grounds, and weapons testing areas. However, around half of the planet's area is dedicated national parkland or biological preserve area.
Among its more well-known facilities are Army Training Depot Raimundo Island, Marine Corps Base Camp Anderson and the nearby Army outpost Fort Copper, Marine Corps Base Camp Willomingo and the adjoining Willomingo Naval Academy, Largo Air Force Base, and the Inner Colonies HIGHCOM Complex. Related areas include the Malachite Mountains Proving Ground (administered by Fort Copper) and the Bitterswamp near Camp Willomingo. Both are used for late-phase field exercises for Marine and Army recruits, and for weapons testing. The sole area on the planet subject to nuclear testing is the Abdul Land Testing Area at Bittrich's south pole, a 4000-square kilometer region of desolate ice desert.
Bittrich was first colonized in the 2400s; at the time it was a chilly and damp world with indigenous mosses and lichens dominating its land surface at the equator and primitive fish and jellyfish-like life filling in its oceans. Terraforming thickened its atmosphere, warmed the surface, and allowed the introduction of Terran flora and fauna. Unfortunately, by around 2585 these terraforming efforts drove most native life to extinction outside of a few areas such as the antarctic continent of Abdulia. The temperature and atmospheric pressure became Earth-normal, and deliberate cultivation of diverse Earth-like biomes and habitats contributed to its utility in training colonial soldiers for multiple environments. The planet came to be used primarily as a military base and training depot, and after 2525 it was directly administered as a Military District. With the formation of the Central Galactic Union in 2675, it was restructured as a Federal Territory under statutory military administration.
Star system: Flecker
World type: Type Ia Gaian Garden
Orbital distance: 1.1 AU
Orbital period: 395.67 Earth Days (1.084 Earth Years)
Radius: 7451.82 km km (1.17 Earth radius)
Day length: 27.25 Earth hours
Natural satellites: 2 (Messer, Busey)
Mass: 1.53 Earth masses
Surface gravity: 1.12 g
Atmospheric pressure: 0.88 atm
Atmospheric composition: 73.1% nitrogen, 17.3% oxygen, 9.6% argon, trace other gases
Hydrosphere: 65% water, 11% ice
Surface temperature: 289 K (16° C)
Governance: Federal Territory, governed by a Lieutenant General or Vice Admiral under military governing authority.
Population: 422 million (permanent, surface); 1.1 billion (total, including recruits undergoing training and temporary duty, and lunar/orbital bases)
Capital: Fort Copper
Largest Settlement: Anderson (pop. 800,000)
A rocky, earth-like world nestled in the Jellyfish Nebula, some 5,000 light years from Earth, Bittrich is the primary recruitment processing and training depot for the Inner Colonies sector, and has been since the latter era of the Terran Empire. It is a garden world home to over four hundred million civilians and servicemembers on a permanent basis. However, over a billion people are present at any given time, most of them soldiers going through training, including lunar and orbital military stations and their supporting settlements. Large parts of the planet are dedicated to military training facilities, proving grounds, and weapons testing areas. However, around half of the planet's area is dedicated national parkland or biological preserve area.
Among its more well-known facilities are Army Training Depot Raimundo Island, Marine Corps Base Camp Anderson and the nearby Army outpost Fort Copper, Marine Corps Base Camp Willomingo and the adjoining Willomingo Naval Academy, Largo Air Force Base, and the Inner Colonies HIGHCOM Complex. Related areas include the Malachite Mountains Proving Ground (administered by Fort Copper) and the Bitterswamp near Camp Willomingo. Both are used for late-phase field exercises for Marine and Army recruits, and for weapons testing. The sole area on the planet subject to nuclear testing is the Abdul Land Testing Area at Bittrich's south pole, a 4000-square kilometer region of desolate ice desert.
Bittrich was first colonized in the 2400s; at the time it was a chilly and damp world with indigenous mosses and lichens dominating its land surface at the equator and primitive fish and jellyfish-like life filling in its oceans. Terraforming thickened its atmosphere, warmed the surface, and allowed the introduction of Terran flora and fauna. Unfortunately, by around 2585 these terraforming efforts drove most native life to extinction outside of a few areas such as the antarctic continent of Abdulia. The temperature and atmospheric pressure became Earth-normal, and deliberate cultivation of diverse Earth-like biomes and habitats contributed to its utility in training colonial soldiers for multiple environments. The planet came to be used primarily as a military base and training depot, and after 2525 it was directly administered as a Military District. With the formation of the Central Galactic Union in 2675, it was restructured as a Federal Territory under statutory military administration.
A first draft of the coastlines of a world I've been working on. Equirectangular projection. The world is 0.90 Earth radii. I have posted two maps including portions of the western hemisphere here before - I'm satisfied with the coasts of the western hemisphere, but the others I'm not quite as certain about. It is part of a binary planet with another habitable world, which is 0.81 Earth radii.
Thoughts?
any advice on positioning the day-night divide of a tidally locked world on a Winkel Tripel projection?