Posts tagged planets
Before picking specs, I need to ensure feasibility. Only one of the planets need be Earth-like; in fact, I would prefer if the other planet were rather small and dead, like a moon. The orbits will ...
For the purpose of a story, I would like to imagine a system of two Earth-like planets orbiting like Earth and Moon. I imagine that these planets were created by a gigantic collision at the beginn...
I've been reading the book Nomad, and in it a binary pair of black holes is cruising into the solar system, and threatens to slingshot the earth out into deep space That's got me thinking,...
So my story is set in the TRAPPIST-1-system and a rogue planet enters the system. When it's still far off, a scientist discovers that one of the numbers is slightly off. (She has some tables that p...
In my book series, a group of a few hundred explorers are sent from a planet called Ishgabangaloodoo to explore Sea World. Some things to know about Ishgabangaloodoo: Its citizens are referred t...
I am imagining a planet more or less earth like. I would like it to have only one pole cap, so only the southern hemisphere has a snow-covered continent. The trick is, I don't want it to lie comple...
There is a big, very big planet that is travelling fast, very fast. It's a rogue planet (not attached to a star system). It's going to pass close, very close to the earth. The earth is probably ...
This is the first question about colonizing an alien world; the second question on agriculture on this planet is here. So here's the idea: human beings travel to and land on an Earth-like world wi...
I have a scenario which I am too poorly knowledgeable to address, I'm hoping for some expert input. I'm currently writing a novel, in which a large section of Russia/EU continents were blown up i...
I fear the math involved is beyond my capabilities on this one. I have what I consider to be more than a Layman's understanding of the physics involved, and I believe I can follow the math well en...
In my particular scenario, There is an habitable exoplanet in which the axial tilt turns to always face the system's star, and the planet is not in tidal lock, this allows for a certain range o...
The planet orbits a supermassive gas giant, almost double the size of Jupiter. But the planet orbiting it is also supposed to have rather large rings in my story. Question: Is it possible for a mo...
Let's say there exists an Earth-like exoplanet which orbits a normal star, with a similar process regarding the evolution of life on earth, yet the star became a red giant during said evolution. A...
What should conditions on an alien planet be like, if the aliens of said planet move 3 or 4 times slower on their home planet than they could if they were to come to Earth? (Gravity, atmosphere, et...
I'm designing an alien planet which is roughly similar to earth (continents, oceans, breathable atmosphere, plant and animal life on it), but i was wondering: Could a planet that is very similar to...
Simplistically, a neutron star is a celestial body with enormous mass crushed into a small volume. That crushing force is gravity and the result, one might think, is atoms packed much more closely...
The selected answer on this question provides an extremely good, and detailed, description of what is generally accepted to be the main (only?) way a terrestrial planet can form, i.e. through accre...
I'm making a mostly ice planet with two moons. For the purposes of this question, let's assume that they are both proportional size and distance to the size and distance to our moon. Both are tidal...
Is there such a thing as gasoline vapors, or some kind of gas that can be given off by gasoline? I'm trying to come up with a planet where the atmosphere is combustible and constantly catching on f...
Assuming that there is an Earth-like planet that has 8 times the volume, 2.83 times the radius, and has the same surface gravity as Earth, and has oceans; what are potential problems concerning the...
We all know that equation for surface gravity is $$ g = \frac{4\pi}{3} G \rho r $$ So if we want Earth-like surface gravity of $ g = 9.81 $, then the equation for radius is $$ r = \frac{3 g}{4\p...
Sister question to: What's the smallest reasonable natural planet or moon with Earth-like surface gravity? - I want us to have both upper and lower bounds for 1g planets available for authors. We ...
I'm writing a science fiction story set on a moon orbiting a gas giant. I want to understand how the world's day night cycle would appear from its surface and how the world might be affected by thi...
I have the radius, volume, mass and density figured out. It does not have a moon. I do wonder how that will affect the rotation. The Earth's rotation was considerably faster before the creation of ...
How close should a planet be to the Great Carina Nebula for it's inhabitants to look up and see this in the night sky? I'm aware much of the sharpness of the view would be lost due to the atmosph...
I'm aware this question has been been answered in some detail and form, but I'd like to know this. How spectacular would a nebula look like from the surface of, let's say, a Super-earth like plane...
I'm attempting to create a world that has very brutal, hard swinging weather and environments, leaving much of the planet desert-like. The world I've designed is a moon of a gas giant. The Parent ...
I have developed a fictional planet with the following atmospheric composition; 60.4% Nitrogen 27.6% Oxygen 9.8% Xenon 1.5% Water Vapor 0.64% Argon 0.06% Carbon Dioxide Is this breathable to hu...
I recently asked this question about what would happen if a fusion bomb went off in the core of a planet, and the answer was relatively uninteresting. As was aptly said in my previous answer, the e...
The Premise Planet K is a lot like Earth in terms of size, atmosphere and land to water ratio, though the continent shapes and sizes may vary. There is one other major difference: the planet's oce...
What is the most powerful magnetic field that could be generated by a planetary object? The measurement of 'powerful' will be field strength ($\mathbf{B}$-field) at the planet's surface, in teslas....
What would a planet's rings look like from the surface of that planet? Would the rings be perceived to be stationary or move across the sky, and would the alignment of the rings relative to the ax...
I'm trying to auto-generate random solar systems, and I'm basically just allocating 2% of the total system mass to planets (and moons). It provides interesting results, I always have a few gas gian...
I'm an artist and I've been trying to find a comprehensive resource that would help me clearly identify likely sky colors for exoplanets that have atmospheres with a similar chemical composition to...
After getting help from the members of this site with Worldbuilding an Earth-like world around an F-Type Star, I have another question. The Planet's radius is 90% of Earth's. The Planet's rotation ...
At the end of Book 6 of my book series, a magic ritual has caused a large meteorite (around 1/4 the size of the one that caused the chicxulub crater) to ram into the small planet (around the size o...
My question on refueling around stars got me thinking about the transit method of detecting planets and how it could be used to detect a ship whilst it is refueling (either by accident or on purpos...
The Progenitors are an ancient race of almost infinite technological sophisitication, who mysteriously vanished millions of years ago for no good reason (I don't like TV Tropes, but you are welcome...
The orbit of mercury is different than rest of the planets. The reason for this seemed unaccounted for in Newtonian physics, and was later explained by Einstein's theory of relativity. Here is a ...
In my book series (link here), there is a star system at the northern edge of the galaxy called the Ryu system. I am planning for this star system to be huge, encompassing 120 planets. The vast m...
Let's start with a little backstory--our planet underwent an impact-coalescence cycle only once, 4.5 billion years ago, when a Mars-sized object named Theia destroyed the infant Earth in a glancing...
I have seen a few similar questions but none seem to take the density of a planet into account. I'm creating a planet on which several small civilisations develop. The planet needs to have a few bi...
Obize is an Eden-like moon orbiting the barren terrestrial planet Akaria. This planetary system is special in the fact that the two worlds are complete contrasts to each other. The moon has plentif...
I have been recently thinking and writing about a hard sci-fi universe with the exception of FTL. Within the system of Alchiba (or Alpha Corvi) lies a planet under the name of Mannhardt and is an E...
So, the idea in a story is that in far far future there's a trend that rich people, they are able to buy themselves planets. Tiny little planets with sizes 4-6 km (3-4 miles) in diameter. The compa...
Without tidal locking, would it be possible to have a planet with a region roughly the shape and size of the USA and Canada in which it is always "day"? (By day I mean at least as bright as a clear...
I'm in the opening stages of writing (yet another) star system generator, using Python. My goal is to be able to generate a plausible star and, if appropriate, planetary system around it - allowing...
If there were a planet similar to earth where the lines of latitude and longitude were half as far apart (about 35 miles instead of about 70), but the planet's density were increased to compensate ...
In my world there are two planets within the same solar system, which are connected approximately every seven cycles through a portal that opens for a few days. The planets are very similar. The ...
I'm thinking of making a world where the sky is purple, or at least perceived as purple by the native species taking centre stage in my story. What gases could cause this colour? Could the colour...