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So I was binge-watching science documentaries the other day (because reasons) when I had an interesting thought: What would our Solar System look like if none of the major disasters that shaped the planets ever happened. Specifically, I was wondering what would the planets look like if these happened: Jupiter's orbit settled farther from the Sun than it is now. None of the terrestrial planets (including Ceres, Vesta, and Pluto) were hit by the impacts that made them the way they are now. The moon-destroying disasters of the Gas Giants never occurred. What I came up with was pretty interesting... The Terrestrial Objects In this alternate solar system, none of the major rocky bodies in the Solar System, including Ceres, Vesta, and Pluto, were never hit by their future-changing impacts. Mercury's crust was never blown off, Venus wasn't smacked by another planet, Earth and Theia never collided, Mars's Borealis Basin wasn't created, Vesta wasn't mostly blown apart, and Pluto's mega-impact never happened. Because of Jupiter's more distant orbit (more on that later), Mercury and its impactor Hermes were able to settle into stable, resonant orbits that were safe for collision. The two planets were in a 2-3 mean motion resonance, with Mercury orbiting every 75 days at about 0.35 AU and Hermes orbiting every 112.5 days at about 0.4563 AU. Mercury retained its birth size of about 1.125 Earth radii and 1.3 Earth masses. Its powerful gravity trapped more greenhouse gases, creating a toxic atmosphere 130 times the pressure of Earth's. Alternate Mercury is heated to over 1,000 kelvin and has a volcanic surface dotted with lava seas. It is very similar to what Earth may become in about 1 billion years. Hermes, on the other hand, is just 65% the size of Earth and 26% as massive. It is nearly identical to the real Mercury, with a large iron core, Moon-like terrain, and a slow rotation period. Venus's impactor never existed in this timeline. As such, the planet retained its Earth-like rotation but was smaller at 0.9 Earth radii and 0.67 Earth masses. Alternate Venus is much more Earth-like, with plate tectonics and oceans. The atmosphere is about 55% thicker than our atmosphere because of the evaporated water vapor. However, the fast rotation and geologic activity on Alternate Venus helps regulate the climate, keeping the planet away from a runaway greenhouse effect from another 500 million years. In fact, Alternate Venus is more Earth-like than Alternate Earth! Since Theia was able to survive past the Solar System's infancy, Earth's giant moon was never created. Alternate Earth is similar in size to our real-life Venus because the Theia collision added mass to our world and made it larger than when it first formed. However, since this event never happened, Alternate Earth is mostly covered in oceans with somewhat larger ice caps and large volcanic islands. These islands can reach up to the size of Alaska! Alternate Earth's atmosphere is 60% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, 15% water vapor, and 5% trace with a pressure of 1.32 atmospheres. It also has captured two little asteroids named Luna and Selene. Theia and Alternate Mars are almost identical worlds. Let's start with Theia, a 0.55 Earth radius "Mini-Terran." It has a nearly even amount of land and oceans coated under an atmosphere 1/3 the thickness of ours. Theia's atmosphere is 90% water vapor and argon, leading to a very weird sky color. All that water vapor isn't that good as a greenhouse effect though; remember, the atmosphere on Theia is still too thin for humans. It is otherwise similar to Earth, including having a rather large iron core (that our Earth ate). Alternate Mars is slightly larger at 0.575 Earth radii, but 0.005 Earth masses smaller than Theia. It has a slightly thicker atmosphere that, once again, isn't great at creating a warm climate. Alternate Mars is warm enough around the equator for some small seas of liquid water, while the rest is locked up in vast, icy tundras stretching from the tropics to the poles. This Mars is similar to Real Mars when it comes to volcanism. Over billions of years, volcanic eruptions have built up an atmosphere of 75% volcanic gases (and argon). However, unlike Theia, Alternate Mars has the right enough amount of oxygen for humans to breathe. In this Alternate Solar System, the Asteroid Belt formed farther out due to Jupiter stabilizing at 6.95 AU instead of 4.5 AU. This makes Ceres and Vesta actual planets! Congrats for them! However, Ceres hasn't really changed much. Its big sister Vesta stole much of the planet-building debris, making Alternate Ceres just a bit larger than Real Ceres. Both Ceres' have salty and watery mantles that have caused some weird surface features. Vesta, on the other hand, doesn't have a lot of internal salt-like compounds. It is far larger than Ceres, with 27% the radius of Earth and 1% its mass. Alternate Vesta is about two-thirds ice and one-third silicates/iron. It also has an atmosphere, albeit a very thin one created from water-ice geysers. Finally, at the very edge of this Alternate Solar System, is a super-sized Pluto. This isn't the Pluto New Horizons revealed to us! It is even larger than Alternate Vesta, with 0.31 Earth radii and 16% Earths mass. Alternate Pluto has a more stable and regular orbit than in real life, and is more geologically active. The surface is covered with cryovolcanoes, tholin deposits, ravines, glassy sheets of semi-frozen nitrogen, large impact craters, and extensive mountain ranges tracking hundreds of kilometers. It is a truly alien world that also has alien life in a subsurface ocean. Alternate Pluto has three moons: Charon, Nix, and Hydra. All are spherical in shape, made mostly of ice, and do NOT form a binary system with Alternate Pluto. Charon is 600 miles across, Nix 210 miles, and Hydra at 250 miles. The Gas Planets Unlike the terrestrial planets, the Alternate Gas Giants aren't so different because of their physical properties...except for one. Alternate Jupiter is identical to its real-life version in terms of physical properties. But this Jupiter has found its stable orbit at 6.95 AU, which has prevented the Late Heavy Bombardment and other disasters. It also has a thin ring left over from a volcanic moon. Alternate Saturn is the same radius and mass as our Saturn, and has found its orbit at 13.9 AU. However, there's one huge difference: Rings. This Saturn has wide, faint rings from cryovolcanic activity on several moons - not like Real Saturn's rings, which are smaller and made of dead dwarf planets. While Jupiter and Saturn retain their real-life physical parameters, Alternate Uranus has not, since it has missed out on the axis-tilting collision from the birth of the Solar System. This Uranus is 5.1 times the size of Earth and 40 times more massive, but also has faint rings. Alternate Uranus has a very light green atmosphere due to less amounts of methane than its real-life counterpart or Alternate Neptune, which has remained the same. The Alternate ice giants orbit at 25.5 AU and 38.43 AU, respectively. This Alternate System's moons will come later on... (Also, 800 POSTS!)

Heres a new thread for language creation. Here's what I have so far, please make changes and rules as you go. Most ideas are good ideas! Try tweaking rules to make dialects, who knows what will happen? This is what I have made so far: Rules: U, O, and A are the only vowels. A T will always fallow an A. A U will follow a U. Gat is the prefix of a celestial body. Y does not exist anywhere in this language. If a word ends with a vowel, the letter F will follow. Numbers aredesignated by a vowel and a dash. Datnguur: Threat Fuullat: Friend Wuutoat: Water Huumon: Human Celestial Bodies: Gatuuat: Earth Gatsatl: Sol GatMatuuf: Mars Gatbuulatnof: Bellona Contributers: Atnduum: Andem Fruudonat: Freddino Spatcuusopton: Spaceception Chruusatpof: Chrisspace Fuundthopon-A-: Findthepin1 Solvuursluuvor: Silversliver