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tl;dr: Such a world would be quite different from ours. Basically, all modern formulations of classical mechanics fail on it, and you also could not base that world on an underlying quantum theo...
Absolutely. This would only take a few simply steps, and a small bit of luck. Here's how it could happen: A protostar forms from a collapsing gas cloud. A giant sphere of gas and dust collapses ...
Let's listen to the head of the colonization movement, who happens to give a speech about this topic right now: Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell you about t...
You wrote: Just to give the background...I have the vision of an ancient race who's star saw it's end. They relocated to a star moving significantly slower than the majority of those in the gal...
I don't think we're going to find any evidence (like TimB did for this question) that life does exist on extrasolar gas giants, but we can at least use some logic to figure it out. No. First, the...
As far as I can tell, the major changes would be to the human digestive system, as well as to all body parts involved in processing food. Teeth The teeth of carnivores and herbivores differ becau...
No. I hate that that's my token response to things like this (I really should be more creative), but it seems pretty unlikely for a few reasons: Low surface gravity: Pluto's mass is 0.00128 time...
Yes, but not in the way you imagined. Vincent mentioned a Worldbuilding question which directly addresses the possibility of a figure-8 orbit. No offense intended, I don't think any of the answers...
The way I would approach this is to modify the cells that produce scales - and have any design as a series of scale shaped pixels. This would mean that the effect would be permanent, as each new s...
Before we get into seasons, life, etc., we have to address the question of whether or not such a configuration could exist. At first glance, I see no reason why two planets couldn't orbit a star in...
I'll first address Cha 110913-773444 specifically. Checking the Wikipedia page yields some interesting information: Mass: 5-15 Jupiter masses. This means that it is likely a planet - extremely l...
It could be that our reproductive system doesn't work too well in zero gravity. That would impose a strong selection pressure to adapt the reproductive system to zero gravity, which then in turn mi...
As far as dietary requirements go, there's absolutely no problem with giant spiders. They'd have essentially the same dietary needs as any other large predator, and so any environment able to supp...
Sir? Mr? Ma'am? Miss? In a universe as large as ours (infinitely large, possibly) you're going to have a lot of species with more than two genders. So we can scrap the "Miss". I'm going to assume ...
TL,DR: TL,DR: Would humans beings from Earth be seriously injured or killed from the long period variation of the main color a bunch of stars projects on a planet? My TL;DR: Yes. Could such a...
Well, it might. But only a little, for now. As others have pointed out, we only get a small portion of our energy from solar power. However, the Sun is indirectly related to other methods of produ...
"We don't know who struck first, us or them, but we know that it was us that scorched the sky." -- Morpheus, The Matrix Electric power generation works by converting other forms of energy int...
I realize that creating worlds with multiple moons and/or suns is risky I think I implied this is one of my answers. I suppose that this statement really comes down to opinion, but there's som...
Well, it's really, really, really, really unlikely, but I suppose there's a mechanism for it (albeit unlikely). I think you get the picture. Take your planet. Now take a very dense neutron star. P...
This cannot happen. Here's why: Conservation of electric charge would be violated: The Earth is made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Electrons are charge; protons and neutrons contain partic...
I love this one. I really do. Quick Answer: I'd put the date at roughly 2.3 billion years ago, give or take. This is the date of the Great Oxygenation Event. It's when organisms (bacteria) began ...
TimB's answer is basically what I would write, except for a very small loophole that I'll include here. Any celestial body does not actually orbit another body, but a point in space called the sys...
Yes, but you'd have to get lucky. If you want to use celestial bodies, you're best bet would be to study the effects of something that closely interacts with the Sun. Really, this rules out much o...
Let's first do some math, the first part taken from this pdf regarding (solar) radiation pressure (the formulas should be applicable from any source of electromagnetic radiation). The intensity $I...
Note: My original answer was incorrect; tidal locking would not produce such a scenario. For an excellent explanation of why this is the case, see smithkm's answer. I want to leave in some notes re...
