Posts tagged planets
Here is a link to an online animation of stars' movements in a trinary system. Basically, the three stars are orbiting around a barycenter; one (yellow in the animation, mass = 1) closer to it a...
I know next to nothing about astrophysics, but I've read a few Wikipedia articles, and it seems like a "normal" kind of binary system includes two stars of similar mass orbiting a common center. I...
I'm curious what it would take to get a planet with so much free fluorine that you can have an atmosphere of predominantly or purely fluorine. I realize how improbable a planet like this is, so I'm...
This is the ideal set up for my solar system: EDIT It's been pointed out that this is not a stable set up, so I want to clarify that everything in this set up can be changed at will to fit my plan...
Our Earth and Venus each keep a thick atmosphere because of a magnetosphere. Most terraforming scenarios of Mars involve transferring water and other gases from the ground to the atmosphere. We no...
I thought of two questions regarding ringworld structures in solar systems with results I can't assume, so I will try to describe each (assume stability): If a (toroidal) ringworld were massive e...
If for instance in 2117 when we have the next Venus transit (Venus between the Sun and Earth). There was a huge solar flare or storm right on the line from Venus to Earth. Could this give enough en...
Could a planet with a core of majority tungsten and cobalt with traces of gold,copper,iron and uranium be able to support life?
Which solvent to use for metal nerves? Based on this answer on to how to evolve biological radios, the answer states that if creatures in an ecosystem utilize metal for electrical transmission ins...
I'm interested in developing a world that has somewhat extreme seasonal changes (hot, but liveable summers and cold, but livable winter) with a very cold non-habitable polar regions. Would axial ti...
I have two earth clones, in essence, separated by *16550 miles (26350 kilometers). They are, of course, tidally locked, and orbit each other once every 24 hours. These planets orbit a sun identical...
Building on this question about the magnetosphere for a planet with a substantial mercury core, what is the proto-planetary environment required to form a planet with a mercury core? Specifically,...
In a story I'm writing, the setting is a tidally locked planet with a moon a fifth its size in a binary system of a mature red dwarf and much smaller second sun. I haven't decided the planet's exac...
This is the second part of a question here that I've broken up because they are two very distinct problems. Assuming a perfectly stable ringworld: Assume a more traditional flat ringworld that is ...
In a world I am building, there is a planet named Sentia. Sentia orbits around a G1 star called Prometheus and has two moons, Valkyrie and Cerberus, whose masses add up to around the mass of our mo...
Let's say Earth started rotation in the opposite direction without any catastrophic events, would a day on Earth be shorter or longer or just the same considering that speed of rotation and revolut...
Recently, I've seen those pictures showing what Earth would be like if it had rings, and that made me wonder, what would the sky map be like? This ring would appear as a fixed object (pretty much a...
I was wondering if a planet that has a higher escape velocity but lower surface gravity lose its atmosphere more faster/slower than a planet that has a higher surface gravity but lower escape veloc...
Welcome to the Black Cauldron. The Cauldron of Storms, even. It's a sunny day now, perfect for fishing. Just not here. There's no boats on the water. The weather can go bad, quickly. And anything o...
All right, so I have a game that I already made, the concept is that there are "planets" that do not move and ships that can stand still without being sucked in to the gravity of the planets. I ne...
What orbital parameters could I give seven Mars/Earth sized planets so they have stable orbits around a G-type star like The Sun, they need to fit between 0.5 AU and 1.7 AU.
Plenty of aliens from various galaxies have managed to land on Earth without getting tracked on Radars or satellites. For now, as I want my story to stay undisclosed, please assume that aliens have...
A rocky planet, similar to Earth in mass and composition, is set to pass through the solar system in one year's time. It has frozen oceans of water ice and a thin atmosphere of unknown composition....
I am building a science fiction universe, and I am currently thinking of many different unique sentient alien species that would populate the galaxy. I have thought of a rocky planet with Earth le...
I'm dealing with a planet very similar to Earth, except that it has two suns. So, of course, it would be an extraordinary occasion when the inhabitants of the planet see only one sun in the sky. So...
That is to say, could a planet be big enough to have other planets orbiting around, while not orbiting around any star? Cha 110913 seems to be close to what I'm looking for, but its classification ...
In popular science fiction, we see habitable Earth-like planets with visible, Saturn-like rings. In reality, such rings exist only on gas giants, a category where we can find Saturn. Is it really...
Would it be possible for a gas giant to have differently colored hemispheres? E.g. the northern hemisphere appearing blue when looked at, while the southern hemisphere would appear brown? (or any ...
Is it easier to build colonies within the solar system than to send colonies to other stars? Logically, wouldn't we have cities on Pluto sooner than we will have travelled to an exoplanet?
This is all about a thought experiment : Is there an hypothetical (or may it be real?) case of a stellar system, in which both methods of transit and radial velocities, are invalidated by some or...
Is it possible that a tiny amount of dark energy(much smaller than even the iron core of earth) could lower the gravity on a planet without breaking the planet apart? I mean, dark energy is basical...
Considering that much of the surface of the Earth is covered by water, what events have to happen to turn the Earth into a desert? What would happen to water that disappears from rivers and oceans?...
Premise; A magma/lava planet tidally locked around its sun. The side facing the sun is always erupting lava, the dark side is a cooled shell, which sinks into the magma beneath in a global whirlpo...
I have a planet approximately 3.5 times the mass of the Earth. I have a moon orbiting that planet that has to be habitable as well, because my story will take place on the first expedition to this ...
I was wondering about a setting where a moon orbiting a gas giant can sustain human life on its surface, i.e. with nearly identical conditions compared to Earth (e.g. size, gravity, mean temperatur...
I am writing a science fiction movie script and a planet idea came to me a few weeks ago: A planet with equatorial icecaps and polar jungles. As interesting and intriguing as this is to think about...
I imagine a planet similar to ours, except for two details: The presence of everlasting clouds No yearly seasons Explanation: In this world clouds are very high and thick, so that sunlight (or...
In science fiction a common plot device is for a planet to be surrounded by electromagnetic interference that prevents an orbiting ship from scanning it with sensors or communicating with people on...
In the movie Oblivion, the Moon has been destroyed by invading aliens. Several shots of the moon show what is left: If the moon was somehow shattered like this, what would the effect be on Earth?
What's the longest plausible orbital period for a habitable planet with a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance? I want a planet with a 3:2 spin orbit resonance (which would experience 1/3 of a year of nightti...
Assume that we have a earth like planet,orbiting a sun like star. On which have all the right ingredient:atmosphere,liquid water,molten metal core.....etc for the existence of the life as we known ...
Astronomers place planet Earth under what they call a "Goldilocks Zone"--a spot in the solar system where conditions are ideal for liquid water to form, thus making the creation of life possible. ...
Suppose that a god has created a universe with nothing in it, except for a single, solitary celestial body. For simplicity, I'll call it a planet, although it most probably technically won't be. Fo...
We know that planets can have multiple moons, sometimes quite a few (like Jupiter). Assuming that a planet with several moons were habitable in the first place and has significant oceans (greater ...
How big of a volcano would be needed for a large (Alaska-sized) area on an Earth-Like planet to be covered in a thick shell of igneous rock? Would that volcano also destroy the world or make it un...
It has been a really long trip since we left our home planet. We have seen so many stellar systems but no planet was over 5 on our Viabilometer©... I was desperate until today ! My Viabilometer...
This is for a video game project. In a future where living in the Earth's surface has become undesirable. People are building colonies in Earth's orbit. If materials from Earth are used to build ...
So, I read the question, the associated answers and comments located here, as well as some others that were more divergent than what I was hoping for. Basically, imagine two earth-like planets ve...
I've created a small planet, about 90% the size of Earth, which orbits a pair of twin dwarf stars and is Earth-like in many respects. This planet's atmosphere is highly electrified, with lightning ...
How plausible would it be for an asteroid impact to create a hole through the Earth's crust into the mantle? What sort of traces would such an impact leave behind? Would it be survivable by at le...
