Alternate Planets, Suns, Stars, and Solar Systems Thread

Rule of cool, fine

Just pointing out that is the only part of your setup that our current state of knowledge could not account for even in theory
 
Rule of cool, fine

Just pointing out that is the only part of your setup that our current state of knowledge could not account for even in theory
It’s only the surface layer which is made of silicates, giving it a rocky exterior, it’s build on a skeleton but the rocky other layer protect the inner layer. The sphere beside looking cool also ensure the inner vacuum is relative low in radiation and that habitats don’t need a sheath to protect them against impacts and give them an outer layer to expel heat.
 
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Hapsburg

Banned
Iskander is the first planet in the Macedon system, located deep in the spinward Terran Periphery, some 10,200 lightyears away from Sol.

An Earth-sized world situated 49 AU away from its parent star, within the habitable zone of a red giant, Iskander is afflicted with conditions just on the margins of flourishing. Its environment is mostly semi-arid, with rainforests embroidering its supercontinent's coastline; with negligible axial tilt, it lacks significant seasonal variations. Erosion and a largely dormant volcanism has erased most of its mountains, replacing them with a slowly-sloping plateau and rocky highlands, which only poorly breaks up cloud cover. Instead, the planet sees highly mobile but mild rainfall that turns the southern lowlands into fertile scrub, and keeps the northern upland a harsh and rocky desert. Despite this, it has a rich native ecology, especially in its single vast, shallow sea.

Despite these harsh conditions, Iskander is rich in mineral wealth, which drove considerable mining exploitation from the 2380s and strong population growth as a "boomtown" comparable to Keystone. However, after three centuries, these resources were depleted and as much as half of the population emigrated in the 2600s. Being located deep in the Terran Periphery, its defense assets were reassigned to more dangerous worlds, and after 2682 it was devolved its own autonomous government, reducing federal involvement. Mining, logging, petroleum, and agricultural sectors dominate its economy, and it has failed to grow and diversify like the oft-compared Keystone, though it has been no less renowned for local political corruption. Banditry is commonplace in the frontier, but it has never risen to be enough of a threat to require military intervention. Colonial police struggle to keep the peace in the rural badlands, often requiring local government to cooperate with organized bandit gangs.

Rail networks and air freight connect the major cities, but much of the frontier is underdeveloped and low-tech by comparison, with some remote regions depending on pack animals rather than motor vehicles due to reduced . Only one major spaceport exists on the surface, at Phillipolis, with a handful of orbital docking facilities to service it.

Its current population is 84 million, widely dispersed across rural towns, port cities, cattle stations, and plantation villages. Its early population growth encouraged alien investment and migration, and despite the overall change in the Terran sphere of influence towards human supremacist policy and alien exclusionism, some wealthy aliens were allowed to retain their business interests and landholdings in backwater colonies like Iskander.

Iskander.png
 
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I haven't crunched the numbers but even a thin layer of silica plus interscaffolding on the level of an earth size sphere is probably pushing past the limits of even theoretical materials technology
 
Alright, so I have a few ideas for a Solar System I have in mind to create. I am going to need some comments, advice, etc for this solar system.

I will list out my bare bones ideas for the stars, first.

Let us presume we have two stars. One star is solar mass with the same specifications as our Sun. The other star is a quarter of the mass of the sun. The larger of the two stars is named Shinespark. The quarter mass one is named Valey. I am guessing that Valey started out as M4V Red Dwarf with a surface temperature of 4200 Kelvin. I am also guessing Valey would be roughly 35% the diameter of that of Shinespark (or the Sun). These are just guesses.

The two stars will revolve around each other at a distance of 0.02 AU - meaning that they would both be tidally locked to each other, share the same axis of rotation, and share stellar material. This will also mean that the two stars will eclipse each other regularly, once a day. Because of how close the two stars are to each other - they will both have a roughly oval shape. Both stars formed together from the same accretion Disk. Because both stars are of different masses, it is likely they will have differing solar cycles - meaning that there will be time periods in which both of their magnetic fields are aligned, and when there are periods where their magnetic fields are opposite - this will mean there will be more solar flare activity and solar activity than we experience with our Sun.

Because the two stars are so close to one another, Valey will be receiving a mass transfer from Shinespark. By the time life evolves on Halycon (my Earth like planet) in this system, the two stars should have evened out to be roughly the same mass. 5/8ths that of the Sun, each. At that mass, what will both star's luminosity be like? Their spectral class? As the mass transfer from ShineSpark to Valey occurs, the two stars will get closer - and by the time life evolves on Halcyon, they should likely be orbiting each other roughly every few hours.

This is all just guesswork. It's possible the two stars could have just formed equally as 5/8ths the mass of the sun at 0.02 AU, maybe. Either way, what is the habitable zone for this system?
 
I was wondering something, and hopefully this description makes some sense because it's a bit difficult to explain.
Let's say that the planet earth was split in half, along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a perfectly straight line, and the two opposite edges connect with each other by their longitude, forming a newly spherical-esk earth. If it shrinks the earth, would major volcanic eruptions, uv radiation, and other changes be different than our own earth, or would they stay the same?
 
Alright, so I have a few ideas for a Solar System I have in mind to create. I am going to need some comments, advice, etc for this solar system.

I will list out my bare bones ideas for the stars, first.

Let us presume we have two stars. One star is solar mass with the same specifications as our Sun. The other star is a quarter of the mass of the sun. The larger of the two stars is named Shinespark. The quarter mass one is named Valey. I am guessing that Valey started out as M4V Red Dwarf with a surface temperature of 4200 Kelvin. I am also guessing Valey would be roughly 35% the diameter of that of Shinespark (or the Sun). These are just guesses.

The two stars will revolve around each other at a distance of 0.02 AU - meaning that they would both be tidally locked to each other, share the same axis of rotation, and share stellar material. This will also mean that the two stars will eclipse each other regularly, once a day. Because of how close the two stars are to each other - they will both have a roughly oval shape. Both stars formed together from the same accretion Disk. Because both stars are of different masses, it is likely they will have differing solar cycles - meaning that there will be time periods in which both of their magnetic fields are aligned, and when there are periods where their magnetic fields are opposite - this will mean there will be more solar flare activity and solar activity than we experience with our Sun.

Because the two stars are so close to one another, Valey will be receiving a mass transfer from Shinespark. By the time life evolves on Halycon (my Earth like planet) in this system, the two stars should have evened out to be roughly the same mass. 5/8ths that of the Sun, each. At that mass, what will both star's luminosity be like? Their spectral class? As the mass transfer from ShineSpark to Valey occurs, the two stars will get closer - and by the time life evolves on Halcyon, they should likely be orbiting each other roughly every few hours.

This is all just guesswork. It's possible the two stars could have just formed equally as 5/8ths the mass of the sun at 0.02 AU, maybe. Either way, what is the habitable zone for this system?
Shinespark, Valey, Halcyon...? They wouldn't happen to be part of a dream, would they? An immortal one?

Anyway, unequal formations are possible. In the case you describe, however, it appears to me that no mass transfers would take place until substantially further along in the stellar evolution process. By my calculation, L1 in the Shinespark-Valey system is located at about 2.8 solar radii from Shinespark and about 1.5 solar radii from Valey, which in both cases is substantially greater than their radii. Thus, neither would overspill their Roche lobes and begin transferring mass to the other, at least not until Shinespark enters her red giant phase and her radii thus expands to much more than 2.8 solar radii. At this point I am not actually sure of what would happen next, as Valey would be orbiting inside Shinespark and could potentially lose enough orbital velocity that she plummets into Shinespark's core. The results are liable to be...spectacular. In any case, this would be long after Halcyon stops supporting life. Until then, they would appear to be somewhat puffy but otherwise fairly ordinary stars.
 
Shinespark, Valey, Halcyon...? They wouldn't happen to be part of a dream, would they? An immortal one?

Anyway, unequal formations are possible. In the case you describe, however, it appears to me that no mass transfers would take place until substantially further along in the stellar evolution process. By my calculation, L1 in the Shinespark-Valey system is located at about 2.8 solar radii from Shinespark and about 1.5 solar radii from Valey, which in both cases is substantially greater than their radii. Thus, neither would overspill their Roche lobes and begin transferring mass to the other, at least not until Shinespark enters her red giant phase and her radii thus expands to much more than 2.8 solar radii. At this point I am not actually sure of what would happen next, as Valey would be orbiting inside Shinespark and could potentially lose enough orbital velocity that she plummets into Shinespark's core. The results are liable to be...spectacular. In any case, this would be long after Halcyon stops supporting life. Until then, they would appear to be somewhat puffy but otherwise fairly ordinary stars.

Wow. I never expected anyone to guess...but yes, it's a direct reference to it. I love that story so much - enough to reference it.

So what you are saying here is that in an unequal formation - the two stars would not be transferring mass? What would it hypothetically be like if they were rather equal stars, alternatively? What would their mass, size, and luminosity be as each being 5/8ths the mass of the Sun?

I'm just wanting to see what would the more interesting setup be here. What would be more interesting in your opinion?
 
Wow. I never expected anyone to guess...but yes, it's a direct reference to it. I love that story so much - enough to reference it.

So what you are saying here is that in an unequal formation - the two stars would not be transferring mass? What would it hypothetically be like if they were rather equal stars, alternatively? What would their mass, size, and luminosity be as each being 5/8ths the mass of the Sun?

I'm just wanting to see what would the more interesting setup be here. What would be more interesting in your opinion?

I think that 'Shinespark' would need to be a pretty bright star. A red dwarf orbiting it at .2 AU is going to disrupt orbits quite a bit further out. So the further out your habitable planet orbits the less likely it is to have its orbit disrupted.

Another one to play with is a red dwarf orbiting a star in that star's habitable zone. Then, either a tidally-locked planet orbiting the red dwarf would have one side with a very long day/night cycle, and the inner hemisphere would have constant daylight, with periods of additional light from the system primary. Alternatively you could have a habitable planet in the same orbit as the red dwarf, but in either the leading or trailing trojans. The red dwarf would rise at noon and be visible until midnight....
 
I think that 'Shinespark' would need to be a pretty bright star. A red dwarf orbiting it at .2 AU is going to disrupt orbits quite a bit further out. So the further out your habitable planet orbits the less likely it is to have its orbit disrupted.
0.02, 1/10th as far away. They would be just over 5 solar radii apart.
 
@Dibwys @Workable Goblin

I am speaking of them being 0.02 AU away, so far far closer than Mercury is to our sun. So, would these two stars, orbiting in that close proximity be able to host a stable planetary system?

Is it more likely that Shinespark and Valey form as the same mass ~ 5/8th of solar mass? What would conditions be like if that was the case?
 
@Dibwys @Workable Goblin

I am speaking of them being 0.02 AU away, so far far closer than Mercury is to our sun. So, would these two stars, orbiting in that close proximity be able to host a stable planetary system?

Is it more likely that Shinespark and Valey form as the same mass ~ 5/8th of solar mass? What would conditions be like if that was the case?

Sorry for the misreading. .02 might work. there probably wouldn't be a 'Mercury', and maybe not a 'Venus', but there might be an 'Earth'. 'The sun' would dim whenever the red dwarf is on the same side as the planet, and be at its brightest when both stars are unobscured (although the size/shape change may not be visible to anyone looking in that direction from the habitable planet).
 
Sorry for the misreading. .02 might work. there probably wouldn't be a 'Mercury', and maybe not a 'Venus', but there might be an 'Earth'. 'The sun' would dim whenever the red dwarf is on the same side as the planet, and be at its brightest when both stars are unobscured (although the size/shape change may not be visible to anyone looking in that direction from the habitable planet).

My plan was that Halcyon would likely be the second planet from Valey-Shinespark. My initial projections for the first planet entail it to be a Super-Earth - at about 3.6 Earth masses, with a similarity to Venus. A hot, extremely reflective, hell world. Am not sure where I would put such a planet in terms of distances. It wouldn't have any moons though, most likely?
 
My plan was that Halcyon would likely be the second planet from Valey-Shinespark. My initial projections for the first planet entail it to be a Super-Earth - at about 3.6 Earth masses, with a similarity to Venus. A hot, extremely reflective, hell world. Am not sure where I would put such a planet in terms of distances. It wouldn't have any moons though, most likely?

I don't have the software needed to figure out what the perturbations would be from the binary. The brighter the binary is the further out the habitable zone is (as well as the 'too hot' zone), while the perturbations from the red dwarf racing around the primary wouldn't extend any further....
 
I don't have the software needed to figure out what the perturbations would be from the binary. The brighter the binary is the further out the habitable zone is (as well as the 'too hot' zone), while the perturbations from the red dwarf racing around the primary wouldn't extend any further....
Let's assume two differing scenarios.

One scenario is Valey-Shinespark are both the same. 5/8ths the mass of the sun.
Second scenario is Shinespark has the exact specifications of the sun, with Valey being one quarter of the mass of the Sun.

What is different between the two?
 
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