General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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Darmstadt, Germany, current day: All ESA members meet on super secret meeting. They had it enough with NASA and want to claim their first place in space. How do they want to do it? Landing manned m...
From Earth, we can detect extrasolar planets by a number of methods; primary are detecting the wobble in a star's motion caused by a large orbiting planet, and the dimming of the star's light as th...
Let's say I happen to find myself outside of earth's atmosphere [right at the Kármán line 100km up] one night and don't wish to cause a fuss as I descend to my home. I am stationary in regards to...
Answer this question: "What would happen to a high-pressure creature in a low-pressure atmosphere? The hypothetical creature has evolved on a planet with an atmosphere that's much more pressuris...
The hypothetical creature has evolved on a planet with an atmosphere that's much more pressurised than that of Earth. It's humanoid in appearance, in that it has two arms and two legs as well as a ...
I have a planet that I want to have a greenish atmosphere. I've heard in a few places that chlorine gas has the potential to make the atmosphere greenish, but also to kill humans. So, the question ...
So we make code for an A.I., and it makes better code, which makes better code, which makes better code, etc... ad infinitum. I'm not going to specify its goal. Maybe it's Robot Overlord Green. May...
The question is fairly straightforward but to put a bit of context: (Slice of life): I've often noticed how even though my eyesight really isn't great* I still somehow manage seeing a lot better...
In Dune by Frank Herbert, there is a molecule called melange. Melange, also known as the spice, grants much longer lifespans to those who take it. How could a molecule grant greatly extended lifes...
How do I create a societal collapse with ruins, survivors, and the weaponry is back to pre-gunpowder technology (swords, shields, bows, etc.), while the Pre-Collapse tech can make Ridiculously Huma...
A group of behaviorally modern humans was cut off from the rest of the earth-like planet. At the time of the separation, humankind had reached a technology level including cattle ranches, brass, wr...
The title is a bit different to the question, but there's a reason to that. I am currently in the worldbuilding stage of creating an alien planet, mainly the wildlife, and I may have run into a pro...
Would a creature similar to semi-aquatic slime mold living on a mostly freshwater planet with shallow seas be able to build technology to the extent that modern humans do? Assuming that each indivi...
A team of alien researchers get bored one day, and decides to conduct an experiment. Seeing that the great ape Homo sapiens sapiens turned out so well ( in terms of technological development and ...
I was thinking of a situation in which a creature lives in a region in which the levels of radioactivity varies from harmless to lethal from place to place and time to time. It takes millions of y...
A few years ago, an isolated tribe was found in the middle of South America. They seemed to be a normal tribe, but near their village is a lake with a special property- you can breath underwater in...
EDIT: Question has been altered significantly in terms of design (originally having been a 'what-if'). This should (hopefully) accommodate more grounded and specific answers. Science often prefers...
We all know the Kardashev Scale , and the energy output required to get to each level , but what would be the best way to transport those amounts of energy? I have come up with ways to distribute e...
I have decided to change the numbers to make it easy on Hohmannfan. These two planets, for all intents and purposes, are identical to Earth, with he moon replaced by another Earth. So now the quest...
So, I have five habitable planets in my planetary system. These five planets are all in the Goldilocks zone, orbiting their star. However, only two are relevant to this question. The star is exactl...
My NASA-like scientists in a system far, far away, but otherwise similar to us today, understand that their nearest sister planet, Sunev, is habitable for mankind. With one exception: it is almost...
It's just my typical luck: I discover and recover the billion-dollars worth of gold on a sunken galleon on the same day my arch-nemesis decides to detonate a one Megaton hydrogen bomb right above m...
For my current world in progress, I have devised a variety of species possessing multiple, unique DNA chains that can receive copious amounts of short-term energy due to their large stores of sugar...
For my space-fantasy setting I created that I will refer to as Dragon-Folk here. The Dragon-Folk look more like humans with reptilian features than humanoind dragons. The Dragon-Folk like the othe...
Elementals are based on the 4 classical elements: earth, fire, air, and water, as those were all that the ancients knew of. However, with science we have learned that none of those are actually ...
On Kepler Bb these are the average temperature and duration in region 1 which is a warm temperate zone(subtropical if you want to call it that): Winter: Temp: 35 degrees Fahrenheit (2° C) Durati...
I am designing a video game in which Alcubierre Drives will be obtainable by the player. I would like this game to be somewhat scientifically accurate in this way. Specifically, I am interested i...
So we all know that Lemmings are known for following blindly to their death but that is not the reality. I would like to create the myth in the real world, or rather I would like to know how suc...
How can I explain, in a believable way of course, that country borders closely resemble drainage divides? They don't always match mountain ridges, which are natural borders "“Â as are the rivers th...
So I have a fictional world where I have three moons orbiting this planet. I've used this web site to try and figure this out but I wanted to ask this question myself. My planet (a little bigger t...
I have a planet with a stellar flux of 1.118, an albedo between Earth's and Mars's, an atmosphere composition of 18% oxygen, 13% argon and 69% nitrogen with a sea-land pressure of 0.87 atmospheres ...
I was thinking of a situation in which a life form evolves a biological screen somewhere on its body that can play videos. The life form would play videos on its biological video screen in order t...
The Hecatoncheires was the collective name given to three monsters; (Briareus, Cottus and Gyges) who were the children of Gaia and Uranus. They were not only known for their frightful enormity, b...
Imagine a strip of land that divided the world in two, by encircling the globe, connecting the poles. I want this belt to form naturally and be a constant feature, at least for over 5000 years. A...
I am somewhat new to worldbuilding so forgive me if I am not as clear as I could be. I have created a continent, but for relate-ability sake, imagine the US and Mexico, but where the Yucatan Peni...
Because Boron is directly to the left of Carbon and Nitrogen is directly to the right of Carbon on the Periodic Table Boron-Nitride has the same types of bonds and so as carbon and so in combinatio...
This is somewhat vaguely related to a old question of mine involving a alien species who spend three thousand years developing a post singularity spaceship armada in the mantle of a lava planet (In...
In a novel I am writing, one of the characters is an immortal* shape-shifter, called 'Creature'. Creature has been around since shortly after the beginning of life on earth. Its cells divide/replic...
Right now the Earth rotates around the y-axis so East and West replace one another. What would the affect be on Earth's seasons if it rotated on either other axis? The first is the Z axis, pointi...
Would it theoretically be possible for a solar eclipse to occur within a few days or even a few hours after a total lunar eclipse? The star, moon, and planet from which the event is being observed...
In a parallel universe much of the physics equation have tetration in them. There are things such as tetrational growth as well as tetrational decay. $x^x$ and $x^{x^x}$ are also found in some ph...
Much effort went into creating sims, uploaded personalities obtained through destructive scanning of a person's brain. These efforts have largely been successful. Whilst officially banned in the ...
I've been getting nowhere myself on this. My goal is to create a human or humanoid that absorbs heat to survive. As a result this can quickly freeze things solid. I need a way to make this, for lac...
When we think to interstellar communications, we immediately think to radio signals with medium or large antennas : We all know about radio signals in seti. In the case of fictional stories, s...
We all know that lightsabers are used for cutting/melting through lots of types of materials (with few exceptions). Now what will happen if lightsaber is dropped into a lake and stays on? Wha...
For this scenario, we must look at the postercard of the term "superearth"--Kepler-10b. Its mass is almost 3.5 times greater than Earth, and its diameter 1.4 times wider. Now let's imagine that...
A neutron star is a type of compact star that can result from the gravitational collapse of a massive star after a supernova. Neutron stars are the densest and smallest stars known to exist in t...
In this alternate universe, we still have the gas giants of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. However, each planet has its mass increased $3.5$ times. How would this change affect the gravity o...
Over four and a half billion years ago, Theia, a rogue planet the size of Mars, slammed into the infant Earth. This impact is believed to have resulted in the birth of many things, from the moon t...
Related to this question, which deals with the no-papers visitors. However, in my case, instead of a character with no paperwork whatsoever -- we're dealing with someone from an alternate reality ...
