Planet Numbers and Sizes

We have 8 planets in this star system. All of them are spaced fairly far apart. Over the past few years we have detected a variety of extrasolar planets, only a few have been multiplanetary systems. This is more of a hit and miss detection method rather than one or 2 planets systems being common.

Two of the most recent discoveries are the systems HD 10180 and Kepler 11. Both systems have more than 5 planets. Kepler 11 is the system detailed in the photo at the star of the post. Note all planets are within the orbit of mercury with the exception of the last. This system is remarkable due to the fact that all 6 planets were discovered by use of the transit method. All of them passed in front of the star (from our point of view). Every planet has an eccentricy of less than 1 degree. Any other planet in system that was beyond the plane of 1 degree would not be detected. With all six planets within the comparable orbit of Venus, that leaves alot of room for other planets. I could images two dozen planets(24) or more if this magnitude of planetary packing was applied to others in system. Don't forget the 6 planets detected so far are at 1.5 + times the mass of the earth! This makes me wonder why our system is so sparse, especially in the outer solar system.

Several evolutionary causes of solar system density may be the amount of mass, how stable it became early in its history, or the environment around the star when it was being born. The amount of mass, more mass in the protoplanetary disk, more planets. If the system were to stabilize rapidly, ie no rouge planets migrating around the system, then then more protoplanets would survive to become planets. The environment around the star would determine how much accreation material would be blown away. These probably come into play interchangeably.

Kepler 11 is a wonderful system to think about, imgine if our system was as dense as it! It would certainly be easier to get two habitable plents in one system with a dense system like that. I sure would like a dozen more plants to explore!






HD 10180 is a favorite of mine. Partly because of its properties and mostly cause its an HD i can remember off the top of my head! It had 7 planets with only 5 confirmed. This one looks more like our solar system in orbit parameters, but look at the sizes!







Diagram Images from http://exoplanet.hanno-rein.de

Red Dwarf Life

Red Dwarfs are the most numerous stars in the galaxy, with over 75% of all stars in this category. The number of these stars are large and provide good targets to search for planets. Life as we know it needs a liquid substance in which to work, here on earth it is liquid water. In order for liquid water to exist in a red dwarf system it must be fairly close to the star. We can expand our search for extraterrestrial life by researching other liquid modes in which it could work.

Our planet is not the only world in this solar system that has liquid on its surface. Titan, a moon of Saturn, exists in the liquid methane habitable zone. Methane is known as a gas on earth, a fairly volatile one. Methane is only explosive when it co-exists with oxygen. On Titan, it forms a hydrolic cycle much like water does on Earth. There are seas, river valleys and methane soaked sediments from rain.



Seas of methane on titan.

There could be many titan like worlds around the abundant red dwarfs. The liquid methane habitable zone for a red dwarf world is from around half of an AU or a full AU. An AU being the distance between earth and the sun. Worlds here would be uninhabitable by our standards, but not to something with their own standards. A world could have vast oceans of liquid methane with water ice operating as a base rock. It could be a virtual mirror of earth, only with alternative substances.

I imagine life and a civilization could arise in a similar way it did here. The visible light at a world like this is quite dim, so I would image that an alien species would evolve to use infrared light to see. Red dwarfs give out 10 times more infrared energy than visible energy. If the world has a large amount of haze like titan one would think that the opportunity for astronomy would be lost for a civilization, the stars would be blocked out like on an overcast night. While this would be true for individuals using visible light, infrared light does not get blocked out like visible light does. I suspect that aliens using infrared are able to see the stars just fine, maybe even better than we can.

Life on a titan world could be just as diverse as it on here, though it would probably use a metabolize differently and perhaps move slowly. I suspect hat anything like plants could use the abundant infrared light to perform some operation like photosynthesis.

The pleasure of building

I recently came across this video. It reminded me of how some intelligences enjoy the pleasure of building. Imagine in the far future when an individual could have access to easy resources via the high technology that exists at the time. With virtually limitless space and the ability to easily acquire an manipulate resources could lead to some pretty amazing things throughout the galaxy. Not all individuals enjoy this recreational engineering, but there are plenty who do.

Exoplanets like Titan

Article talks about exoplanets around red dwarfs that have a hydrolic cycle that operates on methane. Since red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the galaxy, there could be plenty examples of planets that operate in the liquid methane habitable zone. The methane habitable zone of a red dwarf would be about 50-80% AU (earth sun distance).

Its conceivable that life could develop using liquid methane and inhale hydrogen gas in place of oxygen and exhale methane instead of carbon dioxide. A red dwarf releases more infrared light than it does visible light. A red dwarf could be awash in 10 times more infrared light. Any aliens born from these planets would probably develop vision in the infared area rather than the quite dim visible spectrum.

I can only image what it would be like to meet a spacefaring species forma place like this. A place so different from our origin. They would probably be just as suprized at our origin. You lived on a planet that was 70% molten ice!!

Most of this is specualtion based on some knowledge, but speculating is fun =D


View of Titan's Ontariou Lacus (its a large lake of methane on titan)
[IMG]http://www.space.com/images/i/3623/original/080730-ontario-lacus-02.jpg?1292267614[/IMG]

Article
[url]http://www.space.com/11423-alien-planets-saturn-moon-titan-oceans.html[/url]

Messages from Forever

This is a new story/post type I will do in my blog where i post messages or correspondences between two entites/ideas in a letter or diologue like format. I will often include a picture describing the place or scene where it take place or describes.

Image created by Drew Taylor























Message type: Correspondance Log
Sent: 8.35.5634
To: Royomii Verimanq
EntityID# FA83304-688-092443
From: Qwertii Daiu
EntityID# FA83304-122-867875
Message Distance: 34Ly
Travel time: 19 hrs
Wormholes traversed: 5
Network stations: 14

Hello Dear Frind Royomii,

It has been quite a time since we have last communicated. A few years at most. I hope everything is going well for you at the ringworld in orbit round Delta Pavonis. I saw the blog by your clade and you were in some of the entries. This reminded me of our lack of correspondence. I would like to give you some updates on what me and SaiSiem are doing now. Perhaps we can continue correspondence in the future.

Me and SaiSiem have migrated to a planet that orbits the hot star Bellatrix. Perhaps you are familiar with it in your constellations due to proximity. I have included an image of the star with appropriate filters to show it at the star. The image was taken near an axillary entrance in our tunnel network. The the image was recorded in the short period where the northern pole of the planet is exposed to the star. The planet is 1.7M⊕ but has lost its atmosphere due to intense solar radiation. You can observe its quite sizable moon, the moon is in an unstable orbit and will eventually be lost to space. Not for a few million years, however. This is an excellent place to have our artificial reality mainframes due to ample energy from the star and planet. We use geothermal from the planet for our operations, but we often need extra power that is provided by the star. Our facility is buried 1.4 kilometers below the surface with plenty of transport tunnels. I have just downloaded blueprints for a new boring machine of which I will start to 3d print soon, it can do a click a day. There are ample amounts of heavy metals and other materials on the planet. This is also a great benefit due to our need of it.

We share the planet with a couple hundred other individuals of varying clades and archetypes. There are several social gatherings a month, me and SaiSiem go to several to 'have a social life' as she says. Most people go in a variety of unique avatars, I still use the humanoid design I used when I was last with you. Call me old fashioned. We share a communication network on the planet, which receives information from the nexus station at the wormhole. It takes from 3 hours to 10 hours to communicate with the station, depending on where it is in respect to us. There are 12 other planets in system, each with a population. The system has a population of nearly a million, our planet is the third least populated. Most individuals prefer to stay further out though.

SaiSiem and I have been on-world for about 2 years, in that time we have built our home and a network of tunnel systems that go from place to place. We have domain over several hundred cubed kilometers of planet. I have enjoyed creating a network that connects to various places. Our neighbors are fairly benevolent and within a week we had a direct tunnel to all of them. My tunnels have a standardized vacume tube design, the vacume tube only takes up about half of the bored space. I leave the rest empty. Our central facility is a few hundred meters across and houses our mainframes and virtual reality nodes.

Me and SaiSiem have been having a happy time with our simulations and new home.

I Hope to continue correspondace, with love

Qwertii Daiu

A Reassuring Fable

Life Looks for Life