I already have a frankly rather interesting concept for a planet dominated by sharp relief, to the tune of nigh-Martian highlands and the usual thick-air jungle-y lowlands, with the ocean reservoirs being underground, primarily. “Cascadia Below, Mars Above” I called it; but siting it in … Continue readingWorlds of Ice, Snow, and Salt
Adventures in worldbuilding continue, this time with a planet I’m not sure where to site, but it’s a definite type of world that might be out there that I haven’t explored yet: a world orbiting beyond the classic “habitable zone” but warmed by a greenhouse … Continue readingCascadia Below, Mars Above?
I know I just revisited my fictional planet Cerberus…but why not revisit it again? It is my blog, after all. But seriously, I do have some more details I’ve settled in on as I continue to tune the environment to suit the vibe I have … Continue readingFleshing Out Cerberus: Antarctic Vibes?
Cerberus: the ultimate desert coast under a white-dwarf sun. I’ve worldbuilt for it once or twice on this website, but although alien, I haven’t explored just how alien Sirius B’s planet in my fictional universe would be until recently. There are also new aspects to … Continue readingCerberus: A World Out of Classic Sci-Fi?
Garbage. You just can’t get away from it. Not even in Challenger Deep, it seems, the darkest and most distant of all seabeds. Over the course of exploration of this mysterious reach, which started in 1960 but only truly picked up pace in the 2010s … Continue readingA World Without Garbage
I ask: “what if: a bromofluorocarbon world?” “A what?” you might reply. It’s perhaps one of the most underrated of all alternate history what-ifs: it’s well known that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), while inert and non-toxic on the surface, destroy ozone when they waft up to the … Continue readingBeautiful and Terrible as the Dawn
Ah…the white nights, the glow that scatters the midnight sun’s illumination beyond the polar circles. But it only extends down to about 60 degrees latitude, below which the sun is too far below the horizon to light up the sky, and that will never change…or … Continue readingA Noctilucent World…
Go through the list of the nearest stars, and binaries abound…but few are the close binaries needed for the iconic twin sunset scenes from classic sci-fi. Gliese 866, better known by its variable-star designation EZ Aquarii, is the nearest possibility: located 11.1 light-years from Earth, … Continue readingBlack Seas, Red Sky, Three Suns: Worldbuilding EZ Aquarii
Astrobiology, worldbuilding…you see so many red dwarf, orange dwarf, sun-like systems you feel like your eyes are going to roll after a while. Well…I’m going to flip the script: what about a paradise of a planet, orbiting a giant star that’s well off the main … Continue readingWinter Sports Under Twin Suns: Worldbuilding Capella
Where is the nearest Earth twin? It’s a crucial question for my sci-fi fictional universe, that I try to base on real scientific information about exoplanets but also keep interesting. Habitable planets abound in the closest star systems, but none are quite Earth-like. Proxima Centauri’s … Continue readingThe Pale Blue Dot, Filtered Through a Dream