Arkenstein XII‭

Your Dragons communicate largely using infrasound as a means to transmit across long distances. Similarly to Elephants, Hippopotamuses, Rhinoceroses, and even Alligators, these organisms find util...

posted 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

The hero saves the captured giant, and as a reward, the giant presents the hero with a magic ring... However, the ring is made for giant fingers, so the hero decides to wear it as an armband instea...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

The creation of genetically engineered microorganisms for industrial and high-tech applications such as terraforming is certainly within the realm of possibility. However, there are several hurdles...

posted 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

In a world dominated by steppe, the warmest regions give way into parklands dominated by stands of Aspen. My research suggests that Aspen groves may tend to exclude other species of tree, but I am...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

Perhaps a vast colony of lithotrophic organisms lives deep beneath the sand? Long ago, the region was a rocky plain. Then, a species of lithotrophs was introduced, and they began to consume the ve...

posted 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

There are two good ways to have animals become larger. The first, is cooler temperatures. Animals tend to become bulkier with shorter limbs in order to conserve body heat, see: Bergmann & Alle...

posted 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

My hypothetical gas giant has five major moons. Three of those moons are icy bodies with abundant water ice and volatiles. Any of these could provide fuel for translunar spacecraft, or for spacecra...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

Models suggest that a desert planet (that is to say, a planet with some polar surface water, but otherwise dominated by land), can remain habitable as close as ~0.75 AU from a star with luminosity ...

posted 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

The spectrum of a main-sequence star results mainly from the surface temperature, which is controlled by the star's mass. As mass increases, the star burns hotter, and as temperature increases, mor...

posted 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

In astrobiology, this concept is known as the 'Superhabitable Planet'. Such a planet would be more massive than Earth, up to about 2.5 Earth masses. This additional mass provides shallower oceans,...

posted 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

Human physiology is adapted for life at 1G, but planets colonised by future humans will likely have different surface gravities. What is the range of values for surface gravity that humans can com...

2 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

The earliest Metazoa originate between 800mya and 750mya, so anywhere from 80my to 30my prior to the beginning of the Cryogenian. The occurrence of snowball periods is likely not a factor in their...

posted 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

A fictional starship that I am designing functions via a form of Bussard ramjet that uses hydrogen from the interstellar medium as reaction mass, not as fuel. In order to accelerate the propellant...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

An interstellar traveller stands upon the surface of an alien planet beneath the light of an unfamiliar sun. The planet upon which he stands orbits one star of a binary system in which one is a G-c...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭

For a star of that mass, you are looking at a G0V to F9V main sequence star. It's luminosity, depending on age, is probably around 1.2 sol, from which you can calculate the bounds of the habitable ...

posted 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Arkenstein XII‭