Rainworld

[TempMal]

I'm rather skeptical of all this to be honest. An impact that big wouldn't just evaporate the oceans - it'd quite probably melt the entire solid surface of the planet too. The impactor that created the Earth's moon was about 1000 km larger than this one and that totally melted the outer layers of our entire planet, and also ejected enough matter into orbit to form the moon.

An impact this big would totally sterilise the Earth (deep rock bacteria included, unless they were many kilometres down in the part that wasn't melted). The rain wouldn't start coming down til the molten surface cooled enough, and then the atmosphere would have to cool enough to allow it to fall - and that would take longer than a few thousand years.

 

[parmasson]

^ Earth=

 

[balzacq]

Originally posted by Kurega Gikur:

We are talking about restarting the planet’s biosphere from an early stage. A whole new evolutionary process (if it even took off again) might take hundreds of thousands of years.

That's exactly what we're talking about (and what the show in question suggested happened 4 billion years ago), which is why my hypothetical Rainworld would have to be entirely seeded with imported life.


-- Bryan

 

[archhealer]

Ok ok ok... So what if, instead of an impact boiling off oceans, it was a botched terraforming attempt? Like, somebody diverted a frozen chunk of ice (Asteroid-pop or comet) into the planet, but miscalculated how much water it contained? Or, took a planet with lots of water already on it, added some greenhouse gasses, and oops! Permacloud. Also allows for the planet being seeded with life almost immediately after the event which caused all the rain.

 

[parmasson]

I like this idea. Some ultra-tech (TL25) terraforming thing gets set off by a bunch of characters trying to steal it (sounds likely) a few centuries ago and it hasn't stopped raining since.
Probable in real life? No. But as long as it fulfills a role in a plot who cares? God knows how many physical laws they violated just getting to the planet. I don't mind violating a few more to make the story interesting.

^Make it a dense atmosphere, with 90% hydrographics. What about average temp? would this be a hothouse due to greenhouse effects or very cold due to the reflection of sunlight?

By the way.
I think we should stop making fun of English weather. I understand that the sun was out at least five times last year.

 

[archhealer]

Oooh hey, I like the idea of the adventure for the characters that turn it on, too. World with lots of ice, 0 life, and a standard (If rather sterile and dense) Atmosphere. odd combination? Absolutely. Odder still is the low-level energy emissions from the structure detected underground; only structure on the plant.

"So, boss, what'ya think all these machines do, exactly"

"I dunno. All seems pretty alien."

"Boss, I say we turn it on and just see what happens..."

 

[Kirth]

You could always just play with the combination of the star size, orbital distance, and axial tilt to give you a nice wide ranging tropical zone that covers a good portion of the planet.

Remember, what transformed the Sahara region into a desert was a shift in the axial tilt of the Earth's axial tilt.

 

[Kirth]

May be the star could be a little dimmer, the axial tile around 25 degrees and add more water vapor to the atmospheric makeup of the planet.

Thoughts?

 

[parmasson]

May I suggest a slight change . ..
"So, boss, what'ya think all these machines do, exactly"

Boss: "I dunno. All seems pretty alien."

PC 2:” Man, that crystal array looks valuable, betcha it would fetch a fortune! Let me just see if I can pry it loose..."

Machine voice: “Zerema pontoona . . . .nig, ord, ooh, zem . . .Zartvate!”

<rumbling, hissing, whirring>

Boss: “Aw damn.”