smithkm‭

Planets which have something that we might consider to all be a single climate given the way we classify things based on earth is entirely plausible, for certain climates at least. Mars easily qua...

posted 12y ago by smithkm‭  ·  last activity 12y ago by smithkm‭

You could eliminate the magnetosphere entirely which would let the solar wind hit the atmosphere directly. Of course this would be on the day side, not the night side. To get it to hit the night s...

posted 12y ago by smithkm‭  ·  last activity 12y ago by smithkm‭

Important note: The orbits in the diagram are elliptical. They have low eccentricity so they appear to be off centre circles but they really are ellipses with the star at a focus. The habitable...

5 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by smithkm‭  ·  last activity 7y ago by smithkm‭

Making things bigger or smaller is common in speculative fiction (giant ants, tiny people, planets bigger than stars, and stars smaller than light bulbs.) What general principles should be kept in...

2 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by smithkm‭  ·  last activity 10y ago by smithkm‭

The idea of knocking a satellite out of its orbit is common in fiction, but what does it actually mean.

1 answer  ·  posted 11y ago by smithkm‭  ·  last activity 11y ago by smithkm‭

Given a planet without any relationship to Earth, what does it mean for the poles to be "north" or "south"? Is it something arbitrary that can be changed?

3 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by smithkm‭  ·  last activity 9y ago by smithkm‭