Could planets be at relative rest with respect to each other (in a game universe)?
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 need some way to explain how those huge planets are standing around the way they are and how the players are able to stay away from the planets.
The planets are not necessarily spinning around a star, they could be spinning around any celestial body you want or not spinning around anything at all.
I'm not looking for hard science, I'm looking for plausible ways to explain this.
The planets are spinning around themselves but not each other.
To be even more clear, this does NOT have to be a naturally occurring phenomena. It can be a man made system.
Reference gif: https://media.giphy.com/media/l0Iy1ObhDXY9FW3bG/giphy.gif
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/79082. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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You need to take advantage of Lagrangian Points.
Whenever one massive body orbits another, there are five points surrounding them where other massive bodies will be in equilibrium, in terms of gravity, with the first two bodies and with each other.
Several of Jupiter's moons orbit at each other's L4 and L5 points, including the trio of Calysto, Telesto, and Tethys. These three objects could be said to be, loosely speaking, at rest with respect to each other. If in addition, all three were tidally locked to Jupiter, meaning they always show the same face to Jupiter, then they would also always show the same face to each other.
If three moons can do it around a planet, it isn't hard to image that somewhere there are three planets doing it around a star. Further, clusters of ships should be able to park around the L1, L2, and L3 points without getting "sucked in."
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/79246. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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