Posts tagged planets
I'm looking for a solution to generate a strong enough magnetic field for planets with iron-cores - in my case, Mars - to keep the atmosphere from getting blow away by the solar winds (and ignoring...
If the mass came from handwaving and just increased the core's density, what would happen to the plates? If, over the course of 200 years the planet fluctuated from +50% to -50% gravity, would the...
I'm building a fantasy world with a planetary core that gains and loses mass in a predictable manner. I want the gravity to increase and decrease by 50% in both directions over a period lasting 2-3...
If the earth gravity fluctuated between +50% and -50% over the course of 200 years, what specific adaptations would be useful to account for the change?
Suppose there is a rogue planet. I was imaging what could be its energy source for life, and I remembered that photos of the center of a Galaxy look very bright. So my question is, can a galactic c...
What could cause a planet to naturally have zero caverns with surface openings apart from small impact hollows in the sides of craters and crevices carved in cliffs? To be specific, zero large ca...
I've been wondering, would it be possible to achieve levitation of an object in the center of mass of a planet? I ask this because the gravity is the attraction between bodies and theoretically th...
A century ago, after a catastrophic event on our planet, many of us were were forced to find a new home. There was one world that caught our attention: a tidally-locked blue planet orbiting a red d...
In this universe, mass and gravity work differently so stable torus planets are possible (donut shaped). How would a torus world orbiting a single star have to rotate in order to have a stable da...
This is specifically about the climate, and where on the planet it would be mildest. Imagine Earth, rotating at the usual distance from the sun. Except, it is tidally locked to the sun; a so-calle...
I am writing a story in which a planet has a moon that orbits it about once a minute. In the story, the moon is pretty bright too, so the night sky has a little bit of a slow strobe light effect: 3...
If two circular portals of 2 meter (arbitrary) diameter were created allowing uninhibited flow between surface atmospheres of Venus and Mars, what would be the environmental effects on the two plan...
Here, I asked if it's possible to terraform a hot planet. But now, if we have a volcanic active planet, can we use the same techniques to cool it down? Normally, the planet cool off slowly after...
On planets of have different temperatures, conditions and chemical makeup of the lava/magma, what would be the least viscous lava around? (Relevant to an earlier question - What would an efficient...
It's common knowledge that the atmosphere of Venus is too inhospitable for a proper landing. The most concerning problem with that is pressure. Venus's atmospheric pressure is said to be 92 times...
How could an earth sized and broadly / liberally earth-like planet have plate tectonics but still experience zero or weak / little earthquakes? How can I have the weakest earthquakes possible while...
In the (relatively new) Star Trek movie Into Darkness, we see Dr. Bones and Captain Kirk in a world composed mainly of red plants. Obviously these are just eye candy with no real basis behind it, b...
I am working on a solar system for a world where I intend to place my stories. This world should work by the laws of physics as we understand them so that, even though magic is a thing that exists ...
I need a planet where the day cycle is short, in particular 16 hours. I read What determines the length of a day on a planet? and Is it physically possible for a planet to have seasons of different...
I'm imagining a situation that we can see a star change color periodically: A star and Earth orbit around a black hole The star is very near to the black hole so that it has high orbital speed, w...
I've been reading here for a little while, but this is my first question. I am trying to come up with either a concrete set of numbers for a single answer for a binary planet system, or a simple fo...
Star A Mass: 1.2 x Sol Radius: 1.157 x Sol Luminosity: 2.074 x Sol Temperature: 6,444 K Star B Mass: 0.63 x Sol Radius 0.691 x Sol Luminosity: 0.158 x Sol Temperature: 4,378 K Semi-Major ...
Humanity is an advanced civilization, and has long, long since took to the stars. Their resources are seeming boundless, and their technology is fantastic. For some reason beyond our 21st century u...
Good afternoon! I'm working on a fantasy series set on a very small planet, roughly the size of Pluto or the Moon. I've already read some topics on the small earth-like planets, but mine's a bit un...
I know the default will be blue, but just HOW blue, i.e., wavelength in nanometers? I have a world with the following stats: Radius: 4628 km. Mass: .35 Earth (2,09076 x 10^24 kg). Atmospheric D...
An exploratory spaceship holding strangers from many cultures and races has a problem leading to escape pods being deployed to a nearby world that is conveniently survivable. The pods crash land in...
Since I'm creating a "new world" for my story, I wanted to know if the following conditions would work for an Earth-like planet: Its moon (more or less same size as our moon) being much closer (...
So say that there is this ridiculously dense object that fits on Earth. It has a bigger gravitational force than the Earth, and for some reason, doesn't break it. It also has a smaller force than t...
I am making a world to be the setting of my future fantasy works, which is to say I really have no story planned but I want to have a world for it when I do and I want said world to be likely give ...
Assuming all the energy in our solar system (solar energy, heat, etc) was converted into matter, and then using all the matter in the solar system, how big of a city sphere could be built? What I ...
I'm curious what the gravity would be like on an infinite area flat world. The plane of the world would have some finite depth but be infinite in all cardinal directions. This is, in effect, a Mine...
How do I calculate the spectrum of light experienced on the surface of an alien planet? I need it to decide what color the local photosynthetic life will predominantly be.
Would it be possible for a single motorcycle to harm a world so much that it would cause significant change? Conditions: Unlimited Amount Of Time The Planet Is Not Earth (No other cars, factory...
You're an alien that really likes pyrotechnics. Nothing that goes boom on your home planet (in a safe and responsible manner) satisfies you any more. Why not blow up a planet and see what that's ...
Question: Could a planet contain all of its (vast) oceans underground? I imagined a planet with no surface oceans - and no water cycle above ground - but where life was still possible. My initia...
I'm looking to build a "twilight" world, where days are like twilight even when the sky is clear and nights are...very dark. Cloud cover might be able to turn day to an early night. I do envision a...
Introduction I have been looking for information on the Internet. I have discovered that the shape of the planets is due to the gravity to which they are subjected, so they are spheres (,but they ...
Right now I'm writing a sci-fi story that develops in a double planet (think of Rocheworld.) The double planet (along with a couple more planets) orbit a big star and the whole system is orbited by...
It seems to me like one of the major obstacles to terraforming a planet is to give it a magnetosphere. In our solar system, this is accomplished naturally either by a hot iron core (for example, Ea...
Setting: In the future universe, with technologies based on real science that we know that theoretically can be implemented (though not feasible with today's technologies) and sub-light travel, a h...
I'm trying to think of ways that a habitable tidally locked planet could have something that resembles a day/night cycle. Shadows caused by any moons being out of the question. Hypothetically, cou...
Just thinking if it is possible to have a Fire-Freeze Planet? A planet with permanent Ice cover on one hemisphere while a hot terrain on the other side of it. A planet that may have moder...
I have an idea: can a moon float on the atmosphere of a gas giant, just like a piece of wood floats on the water? It is based on the following situation: The density of the atmosphere increases ...
So I'm not sure this is possible but I was hoping someone might be able to figure out a way for it to work. My planet is smaller than earth. I'd say about 75% the size. However for plot reasons, I...
Imagine a planet whose surface is perfectly spherical, without any kind of obstacles anywhere. In such a world, it would be a competitive advantage for any lifeform to evolve wheels, as transport a...
So it's plausible that any planetary civilizations (alien or human) may have landfills. It is also natural to think that many planetary civilizations would die out, or migrate away from a planet. S...
I'm writing about a small desert planet (about the size of pluto) that humans can live on. Is this possible?
I want to create a world that abides completely by our understanding of reality. The whole premise is that "If the Universe is large enough, this would all be non-fiction", assuming the laws of phy...
I've been toying around with the idea of a tidally locked Earth. Spent the better majority of today figuring out weather patterns, habitable zones, etc, but I missed one big detail: How the hell di...
I'm thinking of a planet with one side too hot, and one too cold due to always facing its star. With the planet having a small ring, a "twilight zone" which may be habitable, I was wondering if a m...
