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I've always heard that FTL travel would be essentially going back in time, but it's conventionally used in terms of traveling interstellar distances. So, if you orbited the solar system via FTL tr...
Kaylee is a mechanic on a Generational ship. The ship has several means for propulsion and has a plotted course that goes from star to star, molecular cloud to molecular cloud. It has a Bussard Ram...
I'm starting a whole new planet for a story and would like it to have an orange sky during the day. At a basic level (I am not a smart man) what chemical composition would be most conducive to Ora...
Hydrothermal vents are thought to exist on Europa. On Earth, these vents are surrounded by all manner of freakish and bizarre looking creatures, mainly various worms, crabs and octopodes. Europa'...
In Can I significantly shorten the days on a planet that can support human life? I asked about changes needed to a planet to support human life with a much-shorter day (12 hours or so instead of 24...
With our current technology we're able to travel through our Solar System (and beyond) during at least a human lifetime. Is it physically possible that a star system has more intelligent lifeforms...
This is inspired by a comment by JDÅ‚ugosz. Planets change their angular velocity when they orbit stars because they follow Keplerian orbits with (typically) non-zero eccentricity. The bottom line...
We're a lovely, ethical, near-future population of Earthlings, and prepared to begin terraforming Mars (yes, I went there: set it aside). We have just stumbled on remnants of an alien civilizati...
I am a scriptwriter working on a science fiction story. As best as I can I like to reconcile my imaginary places to within the constraints of reality. Here is my problem: Kettrah Kettrah is by m...
Suppose an intelligent species evolved on a large rocky planet, one with sufficient mass that the species had little hope of developing anything anytime soon that could achieve escape velocity. The...
In my world, a web of space stations was built around the planet to save humanity from ~as of yet unspecified horrible disaster~. Now, it's been a thousand years, and the space stations have begun ...
Assume that Uranium is vastly available, as are the building materials. Can you build this device? The fuel tank stores uranium at a high temperature so that it remains liquid. The fuel injector/s...
This is an extension of my first question, and precisely as Jim2B suggests, I want enough time to pass on my network of space stations for their inhabitants to forget why they're there, how they go...
Assuming a fairly earth-like planet, perhaps, higher in minerals and resources. And a race of highly industrious, highly cooperative, very enginuitive people. Their science is comparable to our own...
Assuming fission thrusters as described here: Would a nuclear fission thruster with continuous fuel injection be possible?, and assuming drilling for the planet's molten mettle core as discussed he...
Let's say there exists an alternate reality from ours that is identical in every aspect save for one. There exists a substance in space that allows for the transmission of sound. Let's call this su...
We are living on a planet where governments are constantly trying to reduce the amount of pollution and emissions in a bid to slow down (or reverse) global warming. But imagine a world where the Ea...
A race of aliens exists on a distant planet whose biological functioning depends on absorbing a specific type of energy. They have what is essentially an antenna through which they passively absorb...
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...
As the question title suggests, I'm looking to find out how long a human could live for if they didn't age in their sleep. Assume that this ability kicks in at about the age of 16 and they have com...
What could make polar areas of an earth-like planet habitable (non desert) and what side effect would it cause (i.e. how such planet would differ to contemporary earth)?
My question is : Is it possible to have a hot desert planet with no significant vegetation with the surface mainly covered with liquid water? Normally, we should expect to have rain overland beca...
In a world where duodecimals (base 12) have never been invented or thought of, how will decimals replace them? We now know that we owe everything related to duodecimals to the ancient Egyptians an...
In a system where 2 planets of similar mass are orbiting around a common barycenter, would the following configuration considered stable on the long run? They orbit at 1,6 AU from their star The ...
