Posts tagged planets
I have a small planet with a Radius of 3,900 kilometers and a density of 8.9 g/cc. It has an extremely Earth-like climate and has been extremely volcanically and geologically active in the "recent"...
Premise We have found extremophiles of the aquatic and microscopic types here on Earth, but so far large terrestrial extremophiles are the stuff of conjecture only. This makes it somewhat challeng...
So in my world there is a planet orbiting a star, which is in a far binary system with another star. Is there any formula to calculate when the distant star would be visible - times of year and/or ...
I want to know if this is physically possible. So at first I thought I was nuts. Then I started reading about Hill Radii, and googled left and right. Turns out a Hill Sphere is the region around an...
What are the minimum dimensions (length, width, height, etc.) for rings to at least be as significant (as in brightness/visibility) in the night sky as our moon? Since there are so many variables ...
What environmental effects (if any) would ever cause blue to be a colour that a plant would choose as an evolutionary advantage? Bonus: I'm looking for light blue plants as a preference. EDIT: T...
Consider a planet identical to Earth except that it has no moon. How long is the complete day-night cycle on this planet? I've heard that having no moon would speed up the planet's rotation, resu...
In honour of the full moon an odd moon question for you all. The idea is to create a situation in which the inhabitants of a world believe utterly that the moon only exists at night. I'd also like...
Here is another planet question for you planet enthusiasts. I have this planet... It's called Barahecio. The Mars-sized sphere's average temperatures hover near the freezing point of water. Of n...
I have wanted to write a story before about people on an arctic planet and other animals, particularly reptiles metamorphosing into polar bear people who hibernate through the winter. But is it po...
I was wondering if two bodies could be physically connected to each other such as the ones in the art I have attached. Is there any realism to it? Original art by Dave Melvin
I've been searching for hours, and most formulas I can find use complex/imaginary numbers or variables that I don't know or can't find out (such as the imaginary part of the planet's love number, w...
Suppose that a planet whose size was somewhere between the sizes of Mercury and Jupiter impacted the Sun. Would such an event change local stellar activity sufficiently enough and for long enough ...
The origin of Superman is fairly well known. A baby is sent to a planet and gains super powers from being in the environment (technically the sun, but I believe you catch the gist). I'd like to mak...
This is my first question so any feedback is appreciated! I basically have an Earth analog that has an axial tilt of approximately 12 degrees instead of Earth's 23, and I wanted to find out how I c...
35% O2 (oxygen) 61% Ar (argon) 1.07% CO2 (carbon dioxide) 0.93% As arsenic 2% Other trace elements On an exoplanet with a mass of 0.284 Earths and a surface gravity of .66 gs (6.44 m/s^2), would...
I was reading a World Anvil article which has a world that experiences world wide seasonal changes. Specifically quoting the article, During the month of Frimense, the Frostkin thrive, as the...
I'm trying to create a world where there's an equator-like divide running along the axis(?) of the planet and the two hemispheres are perpetually different in terms of temperature. Basically, I wan...
Imagine two identical planets planet A and planet B, orbiting the same star. Is it possible that these two planets follow the exact same "route" as they orbit their sun, but are just distant enoug...
In this question, it's pointed out that the L3 Lagrange point, where a "true" Counter-Earth would lie, is in fact unstable, and over time any object there would drift into a different orbit. Obvio...
In a short sci-fi story i am writing, Earth has a shadow twin. A planet with the same chemical/geological characteristics as Earth and wildlife very similar (but different species because evolution...
I am drafting a short story about a small object orbiting the Sun at the precise 'speed' as Earth's opposite the Sun, undiscovered by us due to its position. The problems I see with this include t...
Setup: We are in a alternate timeline where there is a Counter-Earth that always stays perfectly on the exact opposite side of the Sun from our Earth. It has about the same size and mass as our pl...
A habitable planet with multiple moons, only one of which is tidally locked to the planet: is this general scenario possible? I understand that tidal locking takes a very long time to happen. So ...
So, I am working on a species called the Vosians, who hail from the planet Vos. They are a species of eusocial insectoids, much like Earth ants. Biology The Vosians are about 3 feet tall, or 0.9 ...
I am building a planetary system, but I always thought how many planets should I have in this system. When you look at our solar system there are 8 planets. Other exoplanetary systems can have up...
Premise I am in the formation phase of a fictional world. I would like one of its notable characteristics to be extremely large waves. On Earth, most of our large waves are triggered by earthquake...
Back home, Venus is a twin planet with serious issues. The average surface temperature is 900 degrees Fahrenheit, atmospheric pressure is 92 times greater than ours and carbon dioxide makes up 96%...
I was amazed when I learned that Jupiter rotates on its axis once in only 9.8 Earth hours. (Yes, you can call me uneducated!) What if the rotation period was 24 Earth hours? What would change in th...
For a complex world-building scenario I want a habitable moon orbiting a habitable earth-like planet. The habitable moon should allow for flora, fauna and landscape as similar to earth as possible....
An alien species has created a weapon. The alien stands on a planet, points the weapon at the ground, and pushes a button. A large amount of matter condenses itself into a mass, creating a huge hol...
Can a rocky planet have these qualities and exist: half of earth's gravity 4/5 earth radius a magnetic field capable of retaining an atmosphere a slightly slower rotation than earth can sustai...
I have two planets that share an orbit around a pair of stars at a distance of 2.05 Earth-AU from the Barycenter of those two stars. (I can provide more details about the two stars, if needed) Usi...
I'm trying to "build" a world in which the moon is always visible at night, and only at night, to the majority of areas on that world. I've been told that an L2 Legrange point could be a viable con...
While constructing a planet, with the same mass, volume and overall composition as Earth, how do I know how many tectonic plates should it have? And what does having more or fewer tectonic plates c...
So I went and saw Rogue One recently. Wonderful movie... If you want absolutely no spoilers STOP READING NOW. The Death Star shoots up a couple planets in the movie. (Not much of a spoiler but sti...
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Thirty Days", there was a planet made completely out of water, which is the inspiration for this question. However, that planet was held together by an artificia...
Before we begin, two things. This question was inspired by this one. I definitely don't want this to happen. So, I have two very close tidally locked planets, each fills up about 2/3 of the sky of...
We know that as a planet increases in size, its surface gets covered by oceans (more water is captured by gravity and shape is more spherical). Therefore, a planet larger than Earth can not have a ...
Imagine a world full of islands. No continents, just average-sized islands. There are so many islands, that it would look a bit like this from space: Now, imagine that the sea is very, very deep...
I am aware of being a newbie in the field I am asking my question... please be kind and explain what I did wrong if I make a mistake. The idea from where the problem bloom I love worldbuilding. W...
In my story, the humans of Earth have finally made the trek to Venus, and have discovered a previously unknown life form on Venus. On closer inspection of the mucus creatures, they seem to have the...
If the water on earth were displaced to surround the earth in the atmosphere to create a water canopy, how thick would that canopy be? I apologize I should have been more specific in my original qu...
I have a planet in earth's solar system that is on a comet's orbit rather than like the orbits of the planets we have. I need some help picturing how this would work to meet a few requirements for ...
I'm making a simple planetary system with a primary similar to our sun and a planet like our earth. This earth analog has a moon similar to our moon, just smaller and closer. How do I calculate ...
Take for example, Neptune, a planet with a slushy mantle and outer core. Imagine we want to mine for water (or some substance beneath it - maybe an exotic ice form under all that liquid). How do ...
I have four similarly-sized planets (5000-6000km radii) all in circular orbits 10 million km apart (i.e. 300M, 310M, 320M and 335M km from the sun respectively). They are 0.37, 0.61, 0.64 and 0.83 ...
Assuming that the observer is on the moon for a full lunar cycle, would the appearance of the planet wax and wane, would the moon's shadow occlude the planet during an eclipse while on the moon?
What would the effects be on mountains, deserts, and grasslands? I know about the effects of a planet with no tilt, but I was curious about a 10 degree tilt. I am thinking the seasons would still b...
