Posts tagged planets
Many questions on this site hypothesize about two planets in close orbit of each other, each developing their own civilizations. How feasible is that? Some 4.5 billion years ago Theia, a planetary...
Our knowledge of exoplanets is changing all the time, but based on observations so far, is it possible to estimate the number of planets in a galaxy the size of our own that would have an Earth-Lik...
I've been working on a constructed world which started out as the home of an alien race from a sci-fi story I'm writing but just became a pure world building project. As you can see from the map i...
There are many questions on WBSE that cover most aspects of building a planetary system. (some examples below): Creating a realistic world(s) map - planetary systems How many planets should I ha...
I am trying to find an explanation to a planet in which the gravity is not constant, thus allowing some continents to be situated 2-3 km above surface while others are "grounded" on the surface. T...
Background: I'm writing a nomadic society that lives in the shadow of their planet's rings. These rings are as wide as possible to grant them the biggest shadow. The planet has an incredibly long y...
Extremely advanced civilization on a computerized space station orbiting a desolate uninhabited planet. There are no other known civilizations within this station's sphere of observation. Not many ...
In this scenario we have a brown dwarf with a powerful magnetic dynamo from metallic hydrogen. The magnetic field is modeled after Jupiter's but just three orders of magnitude more powerful. Orbi...
I'm trying to create a system where a gas giant has two moons in binary orbit with each other. I'm trying to get that James Cameron look with the gas giant on the horizon, but also have a equally s...
As we all know the Earth is flat. Once upon a time a group of explorers set off with the idea of proving that the world was round and that there was a route to the spice islands the other way, but ...
Like the title states, how would it be possible for the same species to live on multiple planets (before space travel is invented)? Basically, a civilization invents space travel, meets aliens, and...
For my hard sci-fi story, I would like to have a planet similar to Titan (very cold, nitrogen atmosphere, methane seas) but with a surface gravity in the region of 1g. Could this occur, or would th...
Let's not debate whether is there any friction while traveling inside vacuum space and assume all ships can brave a perfect storm brewing inside the giant molecular cloud. OK let's get down to busi...
I want to write a novel situated in a "reversed planet": there are two stars orbiting each other, and there is a little spot exactly in the middle of the two that is suitable for life. A normal pla...
There are several previous questions concerning concentric shells. I won't reference them here because this is different. I understand that there is no gravitational effect inside a concentric she...
Another question based off of this one here. Let's say on a cube styled Earth-like planet, there was a similar race to humans. If the differences in the planets were minimal (besides, you know, the...
Essentially, I'm designing a solar system for form of alien life. For the sake of ease, the star is roughly similar to the Sun, and the habitable planet follows an orbit anywhere between Earth and ...
I would like to include a world in a story that is located on the upper plane (or bottom, doesn't matter, but call it upper for the sake of reference) of the galaxy. If you think of the galaxy as ...
Tidea is a moon with an atmosphere orbiting a giant planet. Due to that, tidal forces on Tidea are enormous. I'm working on trying to understand how would the climate be on Tidea. Relevant things...
Rewriting the question to clarify: The time and location is now in our current Earth. A wandering red dwarf flare star (like Wolf 359) is moving towards our Solar System. The question: How close co...
Scenario: While poking around in an alien ruin, scientists discover a gateway which offers instant transportation to an Earth-like world. The Observed World: The gateway leads to an area that is ...
On the planet Blob there is an unusual phenomenon. It is known to emanate from the planet's core but 2018-level scientists have no understanding of it. The phenomenon Gravity isn't constant. It v...
What would be the diameter and rotational speed of an O'Neill cylinder on the inside surface of which centrifugal and coriolis forces are equal to "gravity" and coriolis force on the surface of Ear...
As you look at the properties of the atmosphere as you scale up or down, things get weirder and weirder. One good example is the fairyfly and its environment. Fairyflies are so small that at their ...
It is said that around 50km above the surface of Venus is the most earth like environment on the whole solar system (source here), At an altitude of 50 kilometres (31 mi) above Venerian surface...
I am creating a binary star system with a likeness to the Alpha Centauri system with an outer orbiting planet like Proxima Centauri. On an earth similar planet what would the temperature variation ...
More often we have heard countless of familiar sci-fi scenario whereby the inhabitants of a dying planet faces world ending catastrophe most notable the superman origin. My question is can a planet...
Having recently studied Galileo theory on the Square-Cube Law, I was curiously thinking about how this would apply to alien life forms on another planet. I've come up with these theories and would ...
Many of you may have heard that supercritical CO2 (as in at just the right temperature and pressure to be in between gas and liquid) is a possible alternative solvent for life, like water is for us...
If humans discovered a diamond exoplanet and then traveled there, how would they set up civilization on a diamond exoplanet? Everything needs a foundation, even on low-gravity planets (below 9.8m/...
I have about five main planets in my fictional universe and like any planet, their days, months, and years are all different. Are there any problems that could mess the narrative up, since my chara...
I was wondering if it is possible for life to evolve in a world which lacks any transition metals. I am wondering this because, it could give a plausible explanation for a world which is very unli...
Earthlings, I live on a world where most places on my planet has four seasons, just like yours does. We also have one sun and one moon, presumably. It's been not even a year since I came of age (2...
Let's say humans moved to Mars and have lived there for millions of years. Mars is of now uninhabitable, though in this case some terraforming has happened. The poles have been nuked to release gre...
Question in the title. A Rogue planet is a sunless world that exists in interstellar space. It might be possible for life to develop on one, but what happens when that happens? I've seen people sa...
The 12 planets in my solar system orbit the G-type star of Nemo. It's about nine-tenths of the size of the sun, and has a stellar luminosity of 0.67 L☉, a diameter of 1.28 million kilometres, a s...
I am writing a story centered around a planet orbiting a Blue Supergiant star. What I want to know is how far away a planet would have to be to be in the habitable zone of such a star. The star I ...
One of the planets I am working on is supposed to have a day of about 6 earth hours long & I'm wondering what effects this will have on its surface and climate. Also, I don't know if this is r...
I just wanna ask which option requires more destructive energy? Option 1 : destroying a planet like earth to rubble (tiny pieces of rocks) Or Option 2: splitting a planet like earth in halves ...
I have a planetary system in which there is a huge planet and a moon orbiting it which has an atmosphere and water (and actually everything needed to sustain life). Thing is that I'm sure the mass...
I have found this idea on a discussion on /r/worldbuilding. Anyway, the premise is as follows: The planet is earth-like in terms of size and mass. The planet has a very large amount of small, act...
Scientists have discovered an Earth-like planet in another solar system, with the same gravity, atmosphere composition, etc, and they decide to colonize it. There is only one problem, though. It is...
I have a planet that is tidally locked to its sun. The ocean is shallow (a few hundred meters) and was artificially created in the past by harvesting the system's Oort cloud or outer-system ice a...
Initial situation: I have cold planet with an average temperature below the freezing point. There is a magnetic field. The planet is almost as big as Earth and can have an atmosphere. The planet...
I'm creating a sci-fi world similar to ours roughly 50 years in the future. Unobtanium, a futuristic metal and fuel source, was discovered in 2020. Its broad utility led to rapid advances across al...
The TRAPPIST-1 planets are all very close to each other and thus are subjected to strong gravitational forces amongst each other and to the red dwarf they're orbiting. Would it be possible for them...
In my story, a portal is opened from the Earth to an alternate world. However, this world is toroidal in shape and has a surface gravity equal to that of Earth. It rotates around an axis that goes ...
Ok, I get it, me dumb, you smart. Only smart questions allowed. In any case I'm going to leave the question unaltered in case some others might get something out of the answers. Thanks to everyon...
In my book series, a space station called the T-Ray that is capable of causing explosions the size of the Chixculub impact explosion just fired at a planet that is completely covered by a massive o...
Think of Saturn. In this book, some people travel to a gas giant with rings and find an ecosystem in the rings of a planet. It has predators and prey. It has plants and animals. Autotrophs and Het...
