Questions tagged [outer-solar-system]

For questions examining the region of local space far from the Sun. Includes questions about the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, as well as their moons. May include Kuiper Belt objects.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
3 votes
2 answers
183 views

If a gas giant became a star, what type would it be?

The concept of gas giant stellification has always interested me. I would however like to know: if a gas giant, (let’s say Neptune) was stellified by increasing its mass to trigger a temporary fusion ...
  • 7,074
4 votes
1 answer
207 views

What would a carbon-based organism encounter deep in Saturn?

Saturn's predominant lifeform begins with allotropes of elemental carbon: graphene, diamond, nanotubes and geodesic shapes. These are doped in places with nitrogen, phosphorus, and germanium. (...
  • 21.5k
7 votes
7 answers
2k views

Would we see aliens on Europa?

If aliens were to bring a space ship to the solar system, and put it in orbit around a Jupiter moon, and then begin colonising the surface of the planet, what would we be able to see from using ...
  • 291
1 vote
3 answers
216 views

How can a civilization tell that their "Sun" is actually a black hole emitting hawking radiation?

Imagine a primordial black hole so heavy that it is a blackbody and there are many planets orbiting around it, there is a moon thriving with intelligent life orbiting a gas giant. I am wondering would ...
  • 46.3k
6 votes
1 answer
214 views

Surveying the Barrier

This question is linked to a couple other SE:WB questions of mine, which focus on my current worldbuilding project. The setting is essentially this: aliens encased the Solar System in the very distant ...
  • 4,801
5 votes
2 answers
452 views

Could a colony on Neptune work?

My book is set far, far into the future, in a widely settled solar system. An expedition is sent to Neptune, and the expeditioners find out that there are massive cave systems reaching deep into ...
  • 686
9 votes
1 answer
234 views

What's in the outer system?

Background: It is sometime in the late 21st century. Several unmanned probes have recently been sent to land on and investigate Jupiter and Saturn's moons. Two sites in particular, Europa and Titan, ...
  • 1,042
7 votes
3 answers
935 views

Rare Earth Elements in the outer solar system

If a space station were to be built in the outer solar system, is there an asteroid beyond Jupiter with a ratio of rare earth elements high enough to make it worthwhile to mine for the rare earth ...
  • 1,289