Hi, all,
I need someone with more knowledge than me (which is to say: anyone!) to help out with the creation of a new alien species. More for the satisfaction of my own curiosity than any pressing in-game need.
I'm not looking for an absolute hard-science answer, just looking for something within the bounds of plausibility.
I created MTU using the Galactic 2.4 program, as I really like its alternate UWP generation system. In addition to the standard UWP stats, the alternate system also generates three UWP extensions: Life, Resource level, and Exports. As I'm not using the official alien races for my game, I decided to use Galactic's Life stat as a guideline to determine where to place my aliens. In addition to swiping aliens from other games (2300 AD especially), I also decided that it would be fun to create a new race from the bottom up using the GURPS 4e Space book for guidance.
The subsector that will form the initial campaign area has one system - Polassar - that supports a sentient, non-spacefaring race. The UWP for Polassar's main world is:
UWP B Trade Codes Z PBG
--------- - -------------- - ---
CADA336-8 Fl Lo Ni Wa A 900
Plugging this into the continuation system from LBB6 yielded the following system:
P....Polassar - K3 V
0....YS00000-0
1....Y410000-0
......7....Y100000-0
......6....Y100000-0
.....10....Y200000-0
2....(empty)
*3...Ryba....CADA336-8
4....(empty)
5....(empty)
6....(empty)
7....(empty)
8B...Ammeni - M6 D
......0....Y100000-0
......1....YS00000-0
......2....YS00000-0
The main world was placed outside the star's habitable zone because it's too big to be there going by the rules in the book. Since the population of this planet was to be entirely composed of aliens, it didn't bother me to place it in the outer zone.
Calculating everything out yielded the following data for the stars and main world (I think I got it all right):
Stellar Data (Polassar)
Bolometric Magnitude 6.72
Stellar Luminosity 0.624
Effective Temperature 4420
Stellar Radius 0.7028
Stellar Mass 0.672
Stellar Data (Ammeni)
Bolometric Magnitude 15.9
Stellar Luminosity 0.00003
Effective Temperature 2700
Stellar Radius 0.006
Stellar Mass 1.11
Orbital Data
Orbital Distance 1 AU
Orbital Period 1.22 years (445.56 days)
Planetary Data
World Volume 1.953
World Mass 1.953
Surface Area 1.250
Escape Velocity 13.73
Cloudiness 100%
Albedo 0.7
Greenhouse Effect +15%
Local Temperature 114.6874 (-158.463C / -253.33 F)
Summer Temperature 153.6812 (-119.469C / -183.044 F)
Winter Temperature 86.01558 (-187.134C / -304.842 F)
Axial Tilt 20
So we have a big, frigid world completely covered by a fluid ocean. The atmosphere is too dense at sea level to support (Earth-like?) life, but the upper atmosphere is breathable.
Questions:
1. Is there any compound that remains liquid at such temperatures (-190 to -110 C)? My limited research finds that elements with low melting points also have very low boiling points.
2. Assuming there is some fluid that fits the above, would it be able to support life in the high pressure zone at sea level?
3. If no life can exist at sea level, I suppose we could have weird towering rock spires that allow for life in the upper atmosphere. What would such life look like?
4. Should I just regenerate the system? K-class stars just don't pump out all that much heat!
Looking at GURPS Space, it seems that hydrogen-based life is most probable for this world, but the temperatures might be too low?
Thanks for reading this ramble, and thanks in advance for any guidance.
I need someone with more knowledge than me (which is to say: anyone!) to help out with the creation of a new alien species. More for the satisfaction of my own curiosity than any pressing in-game need.
I'm not looking for an absolute hard-science answer, just looking for something within the bounds of plausibility.
I created MTU using the Galactic 2.4 program, as I really like its alternate UWP generation system. In addition to the standard UWP stats, the alternate system also generates three UWP extensions: Life, Resource level, and Exports. As I'm not using the official alien races for my game, I decided to use Galactic's Life stat as a guideline to determine where to place my aliens. In addition to swiping aliens from other games (2300 AD especially), I also decided that it would be fun to create a new race from the bottom up using the GURPS 4e Space book for guidance.
The subsector that will form the initial campaign area has one system - Polassar - that supports a sentient, non-spacefaring race. The UWP for Polassar's main world is:
UWP B Trade Codes Z PBG
--------- - -------------- - ---
CADA336-8 Fl Lo Ni Wa A 900
Plugging this into the continuation system from LBB6 yielded the following system:
P....Polassar - K3 V
0....YS00000-0
1....Y410000-0
......7....Y100000-0
......6....Y100000-0
.....10....Y200000-0
2....(empty)
*3...Ryba....CADA336-8
4....(empty)
5....(empty)
6....(empty)
7....(empty)
8B...Ammeni - M6 D
......0....Y100000-0
......1....YS00000-0
......2....YS00000-0
The main world was placed outside the star's habitable zone because it's too big to be there going by the rules in the book. Since the population of this planet was to be entirely composed of aliens, it didn't bother me to place it in the outer zone.
Calculating everything out yielded the following data for the stars and main world (I think I got it all right):
Stellar Data (Polassar)
Bolometric Magnitude 6.72
Stellar Luminosity 0.624
Effective Temperature 4420
Stellar Radius 0.7028
Stellar Mass 0.672
Stellar Data (Ammeni)
Bolometric Magnitude 15.9
Stellar Luminosity 0.00003
Effective Temperature 2700
Stellar Radius 0.006
Stellar Mass 1.11
Orbital Data
Orbital Distance 1 AU
Orbital Period 1.22 years (445.56 days)
Planetary Data
World Volume 1.953
World Mass 1.953
Surface Area 1.250
Escape Velocity 13.73
Cloudiness 100%
Albedo 0.7
Greenhouse Effect +15%
Local Temperature 114.6874 (-158.463C / -253.33 F)
Summer Temperature 153.6812 (-119.469C / -183.044 F)
Winter Temperature 86.01558 (-187.134C / -304.842 F)
Axial Tilt 20
So we have a big, frigid world completely covered by a fluid ocean. The atmosphere is too dense at sea level to support (Earth-like?) life, but the upper atmosphere is breathable.
Questions:
1. Is there any compound that remains liquid at such temperatures (-190 to -110 C)? My limited research finds that elements with low melting points also have very low boiling points.
2. Assuming there is some fluid that fits the above, would it be able to support life in the high pressure zone at sea level?
3. If no life can exist at sea level, I suppose we could have weird towering rock spires that allow for life in the upper atmosphere. What would such life look like?
4. Should I just regenerate the system? K-class stars just don't pump out all that much heat!
Looking at GURPS Space, it seems that hydrogen-based life is most probable for this world, but the temperatures might be too low?
Thanks for reading this ramble, and thanks in advance for any guidance.