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Story in the present, something happened in the distant past

Think of your story time window

How much "past" would you need ? A distance of 0.05 AU from the sun is notYou can have a viable, stable orbit for any planet. But that age, but you don't need thatthis "lava planet" to exist there for 6 billion years, for your story to develop in the present. You just need a planet that is 6 billion years old. ButWhen your story itself will gethas a time window of say, thousands of years, where the situation iscan have developed like you describe. Just put an explanation for the current situationit, e.g.

Unfortunate stellar dynamics in the distant past caused this

Something happened a few million years ago. Due to a near-collision with a neighboring planet, your poor dwarf was moved into its current apocalyptic orbit. At first, when the near collision happened, it need not be a mass extinction event: apart from the view, the unusual irregular temperatures and seasons, no one on your planet noticed what had happened, until it got very warm. Nowadays, everything turned into lava and the dwarf planet is approaching its definite end: but your planet could exist for another, say 100 thousand years, before it has evaporated, or spiraled into the sun. Your story will have a lot of time to develop, your lava planet age (and its past) can be maintained.

Story in the present, something happened in the distant past

Think of your story time window

How much "past" would you need ? A distance of 0.05 AU from the sun is not a viable, stable orbit for any planet. But you don't need that "lava planet" to exist there for 6 billion years, for your story to develop in the present. You just need a planet that is 6 billion years old. But your story itself will get a time window of thousands of years, where the situation is like you describe. Just put an explanation for the current situation, e.g.

Unfortunate stellar dynamics in the distant past caused this

Something happened a few million years ago. Due to a near-collision with a neighboring planet, your poor dwarf was moved into its current apocalyptic orbit. At first, when the near collision happened, it need not be a mass extinction event: apart from the view, the unusual irregular temperatures and seasons, no one on your planet noticed what had happened, until it got very warm. Nowadays, everything turned into lava and the dwarf planet is approaching its definite end: but your planet could exist for another, say 100 thousand years, before it has evaporated, or spiraled into the sun. Your story will have a lot of time to develop, your lava planet age (and its past) can be maintained.

Story in the present, something happened in the distant past

Think of your story time window

How much "past" would you need ? You can have a planet that age, but you don't need this "lava planet" to exist there for 6 billion years. You just need a planet that is 6 billion years old. When your story has a time window of say, thousands of years, the situation can have developed like you describe. Just put an explanation for it, e.g.

Unfortunate stellar dynamics in the distant past caused this

Something happened a few million years ago. Due to a near-collision with a neighboring planet, your poor dwarf was moved into its current apocalyptic orbit. At first, when the near collision happened, it need not be a mass extinction event: apart from the view, the unusual irregular temperatures and seasons, no one on your planet noticed what had happened, until it got very warm. Nowadays, everything turned into lava and the dwarf planet is approaching its definite end: but your planet could exist for another, say 100 thousand years, before it has evaporated, or spiraled into the sun. Your story will have a lot of time to develop, your lava planet age (and its past) can be maintained.

Source Link
Goodies
Goodies
  • 14.9k
  • 1
  • 9
  • 43

Story in the present, something happened in the distant past

Think of your story time window

How much "past" would you need ? A distance of 0.05 AU from the sun is not a viable, stable orbit for any planet. But you don't need that "lava planet" to exist there for 6 billion years, for your story to develop in the present. You just need a planet that is 6 billion years old. But your story itself will get a time window of thousands of years, where the situation is like you describe. Just put an explanation for the current situation, e.g.

Unfortunate stellar dynamics in the distant past caused this

Something happened a few million years ago. Due to a near-collision with a neighboring planet, your poor dwarf was moved into its current apocalyptic orbit. At first, when the near collision happened, it need not be a mass extinction event: apart from the view, the unusual irregular temperatures and seasons, no one on your planet noticed what had happened, until it got very warm. Nowadays, everything turned into lava and the dwarf planet is approaching its definite end: but your planet could exist for another, say 100 thousand years, before it has evaporated, or spiraled into the sun. Your story will have a lot of time to develop, your lava planet age (and its past) can be maintained.