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Conceptual photosynthesis with M, K, G, F type stars. Source: "The Color of Plants on Other Worlds" Kerbal TRAPPIST-1 Where Planet Years are only a few Earth Days...more like Jupiter & its large moons. 1.5 b, 2.4 c, 4.1 d, 6.1 e, 9.2 f, 12.4 g, 18.8 h Earth days per "year" This "Topic" is an invitation to join an exploration of the TRAPPIST-1 system ...students, teachers, KSP players all welcome to share fun & significant TRAPPIST-1 related insights... missions you build either for SLIPPIST-1 or TRAPPIST-1, a place to share your explorations of this exoplanet system, contrasts with Jupiter or Pluto moon systems in KSP RSS Principia, e.g. orbit transfers, etc., cool research you discover about this system, remarkable moments encountered while exploring this model system in Kerbal, etc, focus on creating together a fun & educational concentration of information about TRAPPIST-1 & our exploration of it. NASA JPL: TRAPPIST-1 Compared to Jovian Moons and Inner Solar System - Updated Feb. 2018 Observe 'actual' planet transits in Kerbal! For the Principia adjusted version, the epoch start date is "JD2457000.000000000" = UTC Noon Monday 2014 December 08. Here is an excerpt from the Principia GitHub FAQ: a remarkable model of the TRAPPIST-1 system requires x64 KerbalEDU or x64 KSP Created By: @GregroxMun ( SLIPPIST-1 ) & the Principia team @eggrobin & @pleroy ( TRAPPIST-1 for Principia ) source: https://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom/images/eso1615e/ source: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA22096 Save files & Mission links (To_Be_Added): TRAPPIST1_system stationary 1d orbit Jovian system stationary Europa orbit Seven Worlds of SLIPPIST-1, and an Astronomy Lesson on Stars and the Exoplanets around TraPPiST-1 https://imgur.com/gallery/FQHpnE6 At the above link, Gregrox has written a fun & insightful astronomy lesson with some cool details about the beautiful model images of this system...'almost eyeball' planets & all!...a few excerpts: "You get a hot zone, and then progressively cooler zones down to the night side of frigid temperatures and nothing but ice! You'd have a band of scorching desert, a band of rainforests, a band of tundra, and a massive cap of ice. Or if it's colder and wetter, it can look even more eyeball-like, maybe a cracked frozen ice ball like a huge Europa with a circular sea of melted ice. But these don't account for the fact that real tidally locked exoplanets spin. The Coriolis force drives winds that completely change the climate." "Try to figure out the resonant chain in TRAPPIST-1! Just kidding, I'll tell you. It's in a 24:15:9:6:4:3:2 resonance. Neighboring planets are in 8:5, 5:3, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 3:2 resonances" SLIPPIST-1 v0.8.0 Kopernicus Backport 1.4.5-15 KopernicusExpansion 1.7.1-5 modules: KEX-EmissiveFX-1.7.1-5.zip KEX-RegionalPQSMods-1.7.1-5.zip KEX-EVAFootprints-1.7.1-5.zip plus must copy TRAPPIST1 for Principia folder to GameData Download the Trappist-1 for Principia fáry.zip (for SLIPPIST-1 v0.8.0) file, unzip it, and drop the Trappist-1 for Principia folder in the GameData folder of your installation of KSP." SLIPPIST-1 WIP updates note: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/157020-17-seven-worlds-around-slippist-1-v072-update-march-12th-2019/page/3/ add RSSTimeFormatter to display the correct Temp Terrestre for the state of the TRAPPIST-1 system. plus must copy last version of Principia for 1.4.5 = "Fatou" to GameData: if you encounter issues then also see this post

Welcome to the Gene's Star Remaster Mod. This is an attempt to remaster the Barnard's Star analog mod for later versions, and to give to compatability settings to effectively work alongside other star system mods such as Galaxies Unbound. The pack is focused around a single star system. There are 27 bodies included in the final package. All of the planets are getting new textures alongside EVE and Scatterer Support. A few of the bodies in the mod are being remade to better support realism and make the mod more interesting and the system more appealing. Discord Download: SpaceDock Curseforge Github Requirements: Kopernicus KerbolKurves (if another star system mod is not installed, included in DL) EVE (if clouds are wanted) Scatterer (if enhanced atmospheric graphics and sunflares are wanted) Current Status: Released, update 1.1 queued Special Thanks to: @NickRoss120 for originally developing the mod, and letting me continue development @Mythical Donuts for helping with PQS and VertexHeightOblate License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported First

I always thought that with the use of ions and gravity assist that an exoplanet mission wasn't too far out of the question. So I gave it a try and... Big thanks to @AndrewDrawsPrettyPictures for making the Extrasolar system pack which is used to add the exoplanet into the game. You did a very good job with everything, from the design to the visual enhancements.

I know, I know, I've been inactive lately (but I do stalk here from time to time). Anyway, I woke up to some pretty great news! Ross 128 has a planet!! First up, a while back, Ross 128 emitted signals (not alien), and here's the link to that http://www.space.com/37579-weird-radio-signal-ross-128-star-satellite.html I also believe there's a forum thread somewhere? But into the star! Ross 128 is a pretty calm star, with about 15% of the mass, and 20% of the radius of the Sun. It also has a much lower luminosity, meaning the habitable zone is very close in. The planet in question has an approximate mass of 1.4x the Earth, and a possible radius of 1.2x the Earth, but until we get a direct observation, or transit, we don't know for certain. Due to it's orbit of 9.9 days, and light flux of 1.47, it's not very certain how habitable is could be. Recent reports said an Teq of between -60c and 20c, with PHL putting it at 6.85c. It also has an ESI (Earth similarly index) of .86. At just under 11 light years away, it's the 2nd nearest potentially habitable planet after Proxima, and likely the most promising. Some links: http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog?utm_content=buffer014e0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1736/ https://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=38800 Thoughts?

Recently, there has been much interest in Sol's closest known stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri (4.224 light years away), owing to the August 2016 discovery of a near-Earth-sized terrestrial planet orbiting it within its "habitable zone," an orbital range within which the temperature could allow liquid water. However, some more recent analyses suggests that, the planets exposure to high-energy ultra-violet radiation probably means: No Earth-like atmosphere for Proxima b. Even more fascinating, just yesterday it was reported that ALMA discovered dust belts and an 'unkown source' around the star. In years past, I can recall the star being dismissed in terms of its prospects to host habitable candidate exoplanets, mainly because it is such small red dwarf star. In hindsight, clearly, we have not heard the last from Proxima Centauri! So I thought a general purpose thread to discuss the star and any future discoveries or analyses pertaining to it would be apt. For my purposes at this point, I'm curious about a couple questions: (1) How far would the "radiation kill zone" described in the "No Earth-like atmosphere" article extend out from the star? My physics is too elementary for me to know if the bad rads the article focuses on (apparently " high-energy extreme ultraviolet radiation" is the main culprit?) would have diminishing effects at any of the distances involved (e.g., "30 AU to the outer 'Cold Belt' described in the more recent ALMA discovery). (2) How large or potent of a magnetosphere would be required to "protect" Proxima b from the atmosphere-stripping effects described? (3) Are there geologically and cosmologically feasible processes which could shield a celestial body from the harmful rads described? For example, (and going entirely hypothetical here, not referring specifically to any features known about the Proxima system) could a moon orbiting a large parent (say Neptune) with a large enough magnetosphere be protected? Lastly, (4) I was edified some years ago when one of the more knowledgeable KSP forum members clarified that Jupiter is highly radioactive. I wonder if, under certain special circumstances, a combination of a star and a more proximal parent body might allow for surface liquid water on some moons somewhere out there? Yes I'm aware that several of the outer planet moons are thought quite strongly to have liquid water under large bodies of ice, but I'm just curious if a parent planet of "just right" configuration might emit just the right wavelengths (while not being a 'star' though perhaps toward the 'brown dwarf stage?) to keep a moon sufficiently warm and protected from cosmic radiation? -=-=- Beyond that, hopefully the thread might turn into a good multi-purpose general thread about the Proxima system! I appreciate anyone's comments or thoughts!

Recently, I was scouring about the internet and I realized how exoplanets are quite varied, from near-moon sized ones to some about half the size of the sun (Those ones of course might be brown dwarfs.) and I feel like we need some way to categorize them. So here are my ideas of some categories and their abbreviations. I'll be using new and some traditional planet categorizations to make this as wholesome as possible. (I'm going to be using the word planet instead of exoplanet because it's easier to abbreviate that way, anyways...) Terrestrial Planets (TrP) - A planet that is made of mostly solid materials like silicates and metals. ----- Distance from Star ----- Hell Worlds (HW or UHTrP) - Terrestrial Planets impossibly close to a star, reaching temperatures exceeding some stars Sub-Earth Hell World (S-EHW) - A planet less than 0.6 ME and/or less than 0.8 RE. Earth-Sized Hell World (E-SHW) - A planet with a similar mass and/or size to earth. Super-Earth Hell World (Sp-EHW) - A planet with over 1.5 ME and/or is no bigger than 2 RE. Mega-Earth Hell World (M-EHW) - A planet with at the most 10ME and is bigger than 2 RE. Hyper-Earth Hell World (H-EHW) - @ProtoJeb21's terrifying Tatarus (EPIC 220395236). Easily exceeds 10 ME and at the least is 3 RE. This kinds of planets can only happen if the stellar flux is at least 1,000 times of what it is on Earth and the star is bigger than a G-type (as far as i'm concerned.) ^ Hot Terrestrial Planets (HTrP) - Planets that are, well, hot. they range from ~2000K to 700K Warm Terrestrial Planets (WtrP) - tbd ----- Mass of the Planet ----- ----- Size of the Planet ----- Gaseous Planets (GaP) - A planet made mostly of gas, basically Jupiter or Saturn-like planets. Hot Gaseous Planet (HGa or HJ) - Gas Planets that orbit quite close to their home star Class III Gaseous Planet (C3G or C-LG) - Gas Planets that have no clouds, besides the ones near the surface. Class IV Gaseous Planet (C4G or AlG) - Gas Planets that have alkali metals as clouds. Class V Gaseous Planet (C5G or SlG) - Gas planets that have silicates as clouds, these are the hottest type of gas planet. Temperate Gaseous Planet (TGa) - Gas Planets that orbit within the habitable zone of a star Class II Gaseous Planets (C2G or WCG) - Gas Planets that are too hot for ammonia, but have a potential to have similar clouds as Earth's. Cool Gaseous Planet (CGa) - Gas planets that orbit at about the same SMA as Jupiter or Saturn Class I Gaseous Planets (C1G or AmG) - Gas planets that have ammonia clouds or something similar Planemo (PlM or RgP) - Planets with no star, basically a rogue planet. *Sub-Earth Rogue Planet (SRP) - Rogue planets that are smaller than Earth *Earth-Sized Rogue Planet (ERP) - Rogue Planets that are similar in size, mass, and/or density of Earth Gaseous Rogue Planet (GRP) - Rogue Planets that are mostly made of gas. However, they are likely to be hydrogen and/or helium. Warm Rogue Planet (WRP) - Rogue Planets that are noticeably and unusually warmer than the surrounding space Brown Dwarf (BrD) - Stars that failed to go under nuclear fusion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion#Nuclear_fusion_in_stars. They'll still be planets since they're made of common materials from gaseous planets. Near Brown Dwarfs (NBrD) - Planets that are almost brown dwarfs but not quite. Y-Type Brown Dwarfs (YBrD) - The coldest type of Brown Dwarf L-Type Brown Dwarfs (LBrD) * = Skeptical or to be founded. ^ = Value is dependent on the type of star Notify me if you want something to be changed or add something new I'll try to update this everyday, but that might not be possible since school's coming up.

So, this thread is all about exoplanets, their discoveries, or if they rain glass... Credits: NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech (Kepler-186f) So, on the blue HD 189733b it rains molten glass and has wind speeds of over 7,000 kmph (4350 mph). Making it so it doesn't just rain molten glass, but rains sideways; and has a atmospheric temperature of over 1,000 degrees C (1,830 degrees F)

What struck me when reading about the "super-Earth" type of exoplanet is that many people seem to assume these planets are either like terrestrials in our Solar system, or mini-Neptunes/Gas Dwarfs. Reading more about this struck me as I realized an "in-between" exoplanet type probably exists and many of the superterrestrials discovered to this date. These two papers https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.08088 https://arxiv.org/abs/1311.0329 are rather enlightening on this matter. For example of what struck me: Also, on Wiki This basically suggests that there is a class of planet that: - has a solid or molten lava surface - at the same time, has an atmosphere that is H/He rich, and while FAR lighter than Neptune (for this reason I would say calling them sub-Neptunes is not really accurate as the pressure and temperature, as high as they are, are orders of magnitude lower than those in the water mantle of Neptune), still much denser, hot and crushing than Venus (pressure on the surface of Venus is 9 MPa, the pressure on a hypothetical 5 ME/2 Earth radius planet is 2 GPa or 222x as much as on Venus, one of the theoretised pressures for Kepler 11b is 1 GPa). Now, these planets have some unimaginable surface conditions, but unlike Neptune, you can still say there is a surface there, and to compare, the pressure at the top of the water mantle of Neptune is 200 GPa or 100-200x as much as at the surface of these planets (the temperature at the top of Neptune's mantle is 3000 K). In case of Kepler 11 b, this atmosphere is likely to be steam/supercritical water (a sort of an inbetween phase between liquid and gas). So, basically, there are probably many planets that are not really terrestrials as we know them from our Solar system, but not ice dwarfs like Neptune let alone gas giants like Jupiter. Of course, if we ever get there, exploring them would be the ultimate challenge of building landers, but the chemistry and processes (as they might feature processes we know from Neptune along with terrestrial geological phenomena like volcanoes) might be very fascinating. 55 Cancri is also sending some rather interesting signs that it is probably something we have not seen yet: http://www.space.com/32416-super-earth-55-cancri-e-super-hot-weather.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150506-volcano-planet-space-cancri-astronomy/ Yet, despite the temperature differences suggesting a thin atmosphere, one was indeed discovered, and it is a hydrogen/helium one with a mix of... probably hydrogen cyanide: https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1603/ So here is some conflicting evidence. On one hand, the large temperature variations and possible evidence of volcanic ash blocking emissions suggests a relatively thin atmosphere. On the other hand, spectral evidence suggests a hydrogen/helium atmosphere. On one hand, the planet is 8.63x as massive as Earth, so it could have gathered a H2/He envelope. On the other hand, it is on an extreme torch orbit, worse than Kepler 10b and Corot-7b, which have practically no atmosphere, according to transit data. Yet this one has, yet no H2O was detected (while for a Neptune like planet it is the major component), drastic temperature variations, possible volcanism... yet it apparently retained some light gases. The radius is 2x of Earth, mass 8.63x of Earth, so it is much denser that the 5 ME/2 Earth radius hypothetical "borderline" planet. That would suggest it has a hydrogen atmosphere, but one with a lower surface pressure than 2 GPa. Basically, what I am saying is that some exoplanets might have hydrogen/helium atmospheres that have high pressures, but have not retained the extensive hydrogen envelopes like Neptune or Jupiter. I think planets like this might be frequent in torch orbits, as the gravity holds SOME of the light gases, but not everything. The result might be an unholy Venus/Neptune hybrid with features common to both ice giants and terrestrials. But this does not end, apparently, some planets managed to grow to Neptune like masses while being so dense that they are clearly fully terrestrial and free of any H/He envelope: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-06/hcfa-afa053014.php The planet likely has a superheated ocean of water, but no helium or hydrogen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-10c However, there are also apparently planets as light as Earth with an extensive light gas envelope: http://www.nature.com/news/earth-mass-exoplanet-is-no-earth-twin-1.14477 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_dwarf So, apparently, planets can be Neptune sized and terrestrial, Earth sized and with a huge gas envelope, or anything in-between. This is also why I don't really like when people throw terms like "super-Mars", "super-Earth", "super-Venus", or "super-Mercury". I think there is a very big factor that determines what a planet is like and that is - how exactly did it form and in what conditions. A planet is more that its orbital parametres. Sorry if this got too long. Just had an urge to air my thoughts and stimulate a discussion. I personally feel that the obsession of astronomy about finding "Earth-like" planets limits our horizons and knowledge. I am fascinated by bizzare planets, even those that probably have no life (through the soup like atmospheres of "borderline" planets might have surprises waiting for us...), and think apart from the joy of knowledge and aesthetics (when we eventually manage to photograph them) they might eventually offer a lot to humanity. EDIT - In addition, planets like the ones with a big, but not quite ice giant atmosphere (like the "sub-Neptunes" mentioned in the paper) might offer life bearing conditions if they are rogue planets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet#Retention_of_heat_in_interstellar_space

This thread is for making real-life exoplanets in PlanetMaker. Give me the name of an actual exoplanet and I'll make it.

There was a book series I read when I was younger called Pendragon. One of the books took place on an Earth-like world called Eelong which, instead of a normal sun, had a bright band (called a "sunbelt") that stretched from the northern horizon to the southern one, and still had a normal day/night cycle. Obviously it's not hard sci-fi, but I was wondering if something like that could actually exist in the real world somewhere. Perhaps the planet orbits a pulsar, and the sunbelt is the bright beam of radiation that constantly spews from its poles. Is there are scientific basis to this? Any place I could experiment with the concept?