All Questions
Tagged with planets science-fiction
23 questions
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Can a cube-shaped(ish) world have uniform(ish) gravity when composed of ideal materials?
I'm trying to design a cube world while sticking somewhat closeish to real physics, but am not entirely sure about the physics involved with objects of non-uniform density, specifically as relates to ...
- 473
34
votes
20
answers
7k
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My planet has a long period orbit. How can I make the seasons change faster in order to shorten the length of a calendar year on it?
I wanted a habitable planet around a binary star system, so I conjured up a system that let me have one.
The problem that I'm facing is that the goldilocks orbital parameters for this planed ended up ...
- 9,143
12
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Single biome (hot) desert planet, possible?
I have the below snippet describing a planet in a (hard) sci-fi setting. This harsh planet has some human settlers, who can survive the climate in light weight environmental suits.
The planet is a ...
- 704
45
votes
3
answers
6k
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So we glassed it, now what?
"Glassing" a planet is a common ultimate tactic in Science Fiction, basically it consists in using high power energy weapons to destroy all life on the planet and reducing the soil and rock of the ...
- 51k
6
votes
6
answers
877
views
Methods for simulating low gravity on high-g planets
There are a lot of solutions for living in low gravity environments. (e.g. centripetal acceleration, linear thrust, etc.)
But what about living on high gravity planets? Is there anyway to build or ...
- 995
5
votes
2
answers
812
views
What's the minimum time that it would take for an advanced species to create an ecumenopolis?
In figuring out the rough timeline for my sci-fi, I've run into an interesting dilemma. As it stands right now, There are about 90 years in between one of my civilizations discovering space travel and ...
- 625
4
votes
3
answers
970
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How would aircraft and air-life develop on High-G, Lower-Atmosphere planet?
I'm (slowly) working on a semi sci-fi world, set in a WWII-ish tech level (Semi sci-fi being how they got to this world). Except in this world, aircraft have developed significantly later, and ...
- 11.6k
0
votes
6
answers
431
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What abilities might each member of a 4-person planetary recon craft have?
Scenario:
A generation ship travels to a star system that has at least one planet that's believed to be potentially habitable and, therefore, a possible location for a colony. After sending some ...
- 435
53
votes
16
answers
6k
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What kind of recurring phenomena could cast darkness on a planet for days/weeks at a time?
A century ago, after a catastrophic event on our planet, many of us were were forced to find a new home. There was one world that caught our attention: a tidally-locked blue planet orbiting a red ...
- 653
12
votes
3
answers
4k
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Could a planet orbiting a star have a habitable moon and this moon have its own moon orbiting it?
Could a star system exist where a body orbiting the star has an inhabited planet moon orbiting it instead of the sun? And the inhabited planet moon has its own smaller satellite.
I have very little ...
- 141
11
votes
13
answers
3k
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Why would War Of The Worlds happen?
I've lately been looking at a lot of War of the Worlds remakes/spinoffs, like the 2005 film, the 2013 mockumentary The Great Martian War, and of course, the tabletop game All Quiet on the Martian ...
- 1,604
10
votes
1
answer
2k
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Can someone help me with ocean currents? I'm really confused
I've been working on a constructed world which started out as the home of an alien race from a sci-fi story I'm writing but just became a pure world building project.
As you can see from the map it ...
9
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Mars sized planet with 83% Earth gravity?
For one of my stories I’ve developed a planet with approximately the same total surface area as Mars. This planet has high quantities of heavier metals/elements (especially silver) and it has roughly ...
- 367
9
votes
10
answers
605
views
What would be a good reason for space colonists to lose their technology?
In my universe, humans nuked themselves in a war so thoroughly that the Earth has been rendered uninhabitable. As a result, they have to leave Earth and find a new home. They briefly tried to settle ...
- 6,042
6
votes
8
answers
441
views
How would an advanced civilization on a space station not be able to explore the planet they orbit without significant time between each expedition?
Extremely advanced civilization on a computerized space station orbiting a desolate uninhabited planet. There are no other known civilizations within this station's sphere of observation. Not many ...
- 195
6
votes
11
answers
3k
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What would justify those road like structures
Working on a sci-fi project, similar to well known properties, in which real world road maps play a role, but need to justify them in world on a planet where people don't build on the surface.
I have ...
- 69
5
votes
2
answers
541
views
Is there a way for a Super-Earth have Earth-like Gravity?
I have a planet about 2 Earth Radii large, and even at a lighter Density this puts it squarely in the 10 Earth Mass Range and about 2.5g. It's about 90% ocean, has a thick atmosphere, and near ...
- 759
3
votes
1
answer
3k
views
How would sulfur-based lifeforms behave physically and anatomically?
This is completely ignoring the fact that lifeforms that aren’t based on carbon are entirely hypothetical. Could these lifeforms breathe oxygen like us, or would they need to use some sort of ...
- 2,071
3
votes
3
answers
3k
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Is it possible for a planet to have three moons?
If you have ever played an Elder Scrolls game and observed the night sky, you'd notice that there are two moons (most notable in Oblivion and Skyrim). They both orbit Nirn, the planet the game is ...
- 119
2
votes
3
answers
711
views
Frozen Stars - Alternate sources of electricity
As in my previous question, I was talking about survival, when the parent star of a planet, Eridanus, froze due to some unknown cause. So the residents of this planet Taurus, the Villagers, have done ...
- 3,422
2
votes
0
answers
59
views
Could a rogue planet support life? [duplicate]
I was wondering whether a free floating planet could potentially host life. If so, how? I was thinking of a geothermically active planet, where the only source of heat comes within the planet itself. ...
- 267
1
vote
2
answers
271
views
Is This Living Planet Plausible?
My idea is an planet that is one living organism wrapped all around an rocky foundation. It orbits an sun of one solar mass, and has an Earthlike radius. Its albedo is about 20%, so it gets 1098.4 W/m^...
- 2,380
1
vote
1
answer
364
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Methanol/Ethanol (other alcohol) based life-form and its planet? [closed]
This is the second part of my first question, where I've asked about an alien-civilization which uses methanol/ethanol/other alcohol as a solvent instead of water.
In this question, I'm more ...
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