All Questions
84 questions
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Can a planet without a satellite be suitable and how will this affect its climate and appearance? [closed]
I want to create a planet where there will be 2 suns (small races nearby) and without the moon, so that it is very dark at night. But because of this there are many problems with water and geography, ...
- 51k
0
votes
7
answers
1k
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Is it possible to make a planet full of water and at the same time without life?
It's me again, I want to ask if it is possible to make a planet full of water but it has no life, the idea that it is a planet full of water with small islands in which there is no life, here is the ...
- 141
40
votes
10
answers
7k
views
Can a planet stay cracked?
Images like this
and this
are common in sci-fi/fantasy settings, for the obvious "rule-of-cool" reasons. And while the 'rule-of-cool' is certainly worth using (in moderation) when ...
- 33.7k
4
votes
2
answers
272
views
Does planet size affect mountain formation?
I just wanted to know if the size of a planet would affect the size of its mountains. For example, I know Mars has larger mountains than our own despite being 1/3 our size. Do planets that are larger ...
- 142k
13
votes
6
answers
3k
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Minimum amount of land a planet can have and still be habitable?
I read in a paper, posted by L.Dutch, that:
It turns out that water worlds may be some of the worst places to look for living things. One study presented at the meeting shows how a planet covered in ...
- 940
2
votes
3
answers
337
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What would a planet where giant creatures live be like? (gravity, weather, etc.)
I am thinking about a planet on which gorilla-like people live in. Gorilla-shaped, walking on their knuckles, but with the capability of complex speech and a slightly more humanoid face (possessing a ...
- 105k
4
votes
1
answer
503
views
Behavior of narrow straits between oceans
I am trying to build a world that would have two oceans separated by a narrow sea/strait/passage.
Think of Drake's Passage, but bordered by large land masses from both north and south, like the ...
- 33.7k
5
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How do I get a giant equatorial continent for my planet?
In my sci-fi universe, I have an earth-sized planet orbiting a K-type star. This planet (which has life) has about 0.6 G of surface gravity, an atmospheric pressure of 0.8 bars, and no continents. ...
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3
votes
1
answer
130
views
Help with a planet that resembles Mercury: double sunset/sunrise etc
I'm new. I'm here because I need help for the geography of a fantasy planet I'm building. I don't want to be scientific, but I also want that my planet is credible. I imagined a planet that has maybe ...
- 950
130
votes
21
answers
25k
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What would make scientists realize they were on a flat world?
Scenario: While poking around in an alien ruin, scientists discover a gateway which offers instant transportation to an Earth-like world.
The Observed World: The gateway leads to an area that is ...
- 6,838
7
votes
7
answers
2k
views
Creating a second earth: How to make a continent?
So, to cut a long story short, a group of people are attempting to turn an earth-sized exoplanet into a new earth; that is, a planet artificially made indistinguishable from old earth.
This planet has ...
- 631
8
votes
7
answers
2k
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How do I calculate sea level on a planet with no seas?
On one (of many) of the planets that I am planning out, there are no seas. The planet is mainly composed of enormous mountains, with some deserts in between.
There are no seas or large bodies of ...
- 2,216
4
votes
1
answer
89
views
How would giant creatures that "live" underground shifting their limbs affect seismic activity
Please excuse me if I make any mistakes, this is my first post here.
If there were giant creatures, ranging anywhere from 20,000 square miles (approx. 30,100 square km) to 100,000 square miles (approx....
- 132k
4
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Could a flat planet form by rotation?
Suppose a planet had an extremely fast rotation, so fast that the planet is flattened considerably and somewhat resembles fictional flat earth,
Only at the north pile does life to exist, where the ...
- 105k
5
votes
9
answers
1k
views
What planetary conditions would lead to a rough terrain?
I'm designing a world where humans find it easier to travel using arachnoskeletons, exoskeletons that have 8 spider-like legs. I thought that these legs would be the most effective for traversing ...
- 306k
6
votes
2
answers
585
views
Could a planet have ocean basins if it did not have an ocean?
If a planet, lets call her Shiloh, had no oceans or liquid water on the surface; Could it still have deep, vast ocean basins? Or would a dry ocean basin level out over time?
- 132k
4
votes
1
answer
244
views
What would be the ideal conditions for a farm-world?
As title says, but for added context, here goes: The setting is a rather intricate take on hard-magic meets science-fiction, and takes place in a highly advanced milky way populated mostly by humans ...
- 22.9k
3
votes
5
answers
989
views
Which Planets of my Galaxy Would Have the Most and Least Developed Economies? [closed]
While there are hundreds of thousands of planets in the galaxy my story is set in, only a handful of them are habitable, and over many millennia, each planet has more-or-less broadly coalesced around ...
- 17.8k
7
votes
2
answers
313
views
What should an inactive planet's topography be for nutrient circulation?
I'm trying to engineer an Earth mass planet built initially out of pure silicon dioxide (silica).
So basically, imagine a glass sphere slightly larger than Earth somewhere in the Goldilocks zone, ...
- 888
0
votes
1
answer
191
views
Creating a map of a planet with a strange shape? (edited) [closed]
I have a planet that has an odd pull of gravity because it’s shape is an amalgamation of large landmasses merged together, and held in place by magic forces. Aside from the fact a shape like this on a ...
2
votes
3
answers
676
views
On Ocean Planets and their traits [closed]
I am working on an ocean planet, and I am wondering what conditions would be expected of a planet whose surface is entirely water.
Or more accurately, how accurate is my exact idea.
My current idea is ...
CommunityBot
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5
votes
4
answers
565
views
Can a pangea like super continent have diverse life and climates?
In my story, a group of scientific explorers go on a expedition to a planet, and I am not sure if it should be a super continent or multiple continents because of the diverse life there could be on a ...
- 30.5k
0
votes
2
answers
192
views
What could cause the land masses of earth to move freely around?
In the story I'm making that takes place on an alternate reality of earth in the 1300s, there is an all powerful being that makes all humans immortal. later on he gets angry that not everybody is ...
- 41.6k
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How do you map the climates and biomes on a tidally locked planet with no Coriolis Effect?
I've been looking through some videos and reading up on mapping out climates and biomes for fictional worlds very similar to Earth (Artifexian's videos have been a huge help), but I have been curious ...
- 13.1k
4
votes
2
answers
398
views
Massive volcano on reef world?
Piggybacking on my previous question:
Possible reef world?
An answer in that question included that reef world is an "old, old world. (So)The core has frozen and plate tectonics have stopped...&...
- 301k
13
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Possible reef world?
Piggybacking off this question:
Shallow sea world - plausable geology?
what would we need to have a world covered in reef?
An entire world of this:
If I understood them correctly the previous ...
- 2,216
8
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Reasons for insanely huge precious metal deposits?
In my book series, there is this extremely rich Earthlike planet called Aurea whose claim to fame is supplying the vast majority of the galaxy’s precious metals (gold and silver for the purposes of ...
- 1,035
6
votes
1
answer
129
views
Would an asteroid colliding with a terrestrial planet result in the creation of extensive caves nearby the crater?
I just did some research on the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, which is the crater from the asteroid responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Yucatán itself does have ...
- 301k
2
votes
2
answers
247
views
How do I Cram Many Different Biomes Into a Very Small Landmass?
In my book series, there is a planet called Ryu 108 that is almost entirely a water world. It is the furthest planet from its star (a supergiant), and has a relatively cold-but-still-habitable climate ...
- 301k
3
votes
3
answers
523
views
Making a world as Agriculturally productive as possible
Basically, God decided to create the perfect world for man to work the land. Even then, he voluntarily decided to follow the laws of physics.
I've investigated about some factors that supposedly ...
- 82.7k
6
votes
3
answers
233
views
Longest "linear" natural formations
In an effort to gain inspiration for planetary formation and, at the same time, inspiration for governmental/territorial boundaries between residents of said formed planets, I've recently encountered ...
- 14.2k
78
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Are geographically typed planets realistic?
In many science fictions we see planets which are designated by a particular terrain type. For example, Dagobah is a swamp planet, Tatooine is a desert planet, and Kamino is an ocean world.
However, ...
- 30.5k
2
votes
1
answer
342
views
Determining maximum cave depth
I am planning on making this planet of caves, and it has cave systems that dwarf Earth's. It's got carbon-based life, a chemical composition rich in copper, a good amount of water, and less gravity ...
- 301k
4
votes
4
answers
611
views
World with two directly opposed habitable continents, one hot one cold, with significant geographical barrier between them
I'm trying to design a planet with two continents where one is always warm/hot and the other is cool/cold. The continents should be directly opposite each other (so not a pole and an equatorial one). ...
- 14.7k
2
votes
2
answers
463
views
Are my plate tectonics/land masses realistic?
I'm building a new planet up from scratch, and wanted to get a sanity check on my plate tectonics and land masses. It doesn't have to be 100% realistic, but I'd like it to be plausible to someone who ...
- 49.5k
4
votes
1
answer
184
views
How large and compact could a cold east Mongolia-like steppe be on an Earth-sized planet?
Welcome to planet X! Planet X is the same as Earth in radius, composition, axial tilt and orbits star Y (identical to the Sun). Planet X has a moon known as moon Z (identical to Earth's moon).
Could ...
- 26
7
votes
2
answers
243
views
Is it possible for a planet to have an area saturated with lava but at the same time is still habitable to humans and other lifeforms?
An area of my planet is very saturated with lava. Being quite similar to the Siberian Lava Traps, it is essentially a lava sea. This lava “sea” area isn’t necessarily all lava however, as there are ...
- 142k
3
votes
2
answers
258
views
Feasibility of a massive and nigh-permanent sandstorm?
In my military sci fi story in which a squad of private contractors have to contend with hostile creatures reliant on scent and mechanoreception to hunt, I wanted to keep the sci-fi 'hard' and ...
- 802
9
votes
2
answers
1k
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What kind of effect would low gravity have on geography? [closed]
What kind of effect would lower-than-Earth gravity have on the geography of a smaller-than-Earth terrestrial planet? The Gravity is lower because the planet is smaller, the core must be large enough ...
- 183
8
votes
3
answers
425
views
Impacts of a moon falling on an Earth-like planet?
In the world my friend and I are making, the dark lord makes one of the planets uninhabitable by causing a moon, about the size of our own, to fall on it. About 7000 years later, it is unnaturally ...
CommunityBot
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19
votes
7
answers
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What would an ammonia-based world look like?
Apart from the obvious difference that liquid ammonia needs a much colder temperature than liquid water (but ammonia-based life forms wouldn't feel that as particularly cold), what would be the most ...
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36
votes
12
answers
7k
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How Would Civilisations on Different Planes of a Cube Planet Interact?
If there was a life-supporting planet that was cubical rather than spherical, would it be feasible for there to be a unique but similar civilisation on each 'Plane'?
I know that cube planets are ...
6
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How big would the ice ball have to be to deliver all the water at once?
One popular theory to explain how Earth got its water is that it was delivered by asteroid/comet/etc. The form this theory usually takes is that many small impacts occured over a long time, each ...
CommunityBot
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12
votes
4
answers
3k
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Why would one hemisphere of a planet be very mountainous while the other is flat?
Background
I just read this question about how to get a planet to have one hemisphere with tropical climate and one with polar climate.
The (not yet accepted) answer with the highest score ...
CommunityBot
- 1
3
votes
1
answer
217
views
What would be the consequences of a planet having a core predominantly made of Krypton?
So I'm currently working on a fan project to redesign Superman's home planet of Krypton.
This new Krypton is 1.6x the size of Earth and orbits the red dwarf star known to us as LHS-2520, 27.1 ...
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4
answers
1k
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Aside from low gravity, what conditions favor dramatic terrain?
Fantasy and sci-fi works often are set in worlds of dramatic terrain, because, well... it's dramatic. A few examples of the kind of thing I'm talking about:
I understand that Earth has some ...
- 51k
-3
votes
1
answer
5k
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What would happen if the earth starts burning? [closed]
What would happen if the earth lights up on fire?
Like this picture below:
The earth is burning is it gonna explode or maybe even melt?
What would happen to the water? Is it gonna boil?
What if ...
11
votes
3
answers
236
views
Equatorial oceanic river caused by tides
The setting: A planet with two main landmasses, each one's center located more or less at each pole of the planet. Liquid water ocean in between them, wrapping fully, if not directly (due to the non-...
- 4,153
4
votes
4
answers
433
views
Is it possible to create a realistic habitable planet/moon with actually alien landscape? [closed]
There is a standard challenge while creating landscape for habitable planet, as it should be both:
physically realistic (so presumably like Earth)
alien (so presumably not like Earth)
Standard, ...
- 22.9k
53
votes
4
answers
6k
views
What would a planet spinning fast enough to allow geostationary orbit near the surface look like?
From an answer to a previous question of mine:
A planet spinning fast enough to allow geostationary orbit near the surface would result in odd side effects. Any object at rest on the equator would ...
CommunityBot
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