Moons

[dmm]

I think they ought to have giants that are too large to inhabit, but with habitable moons. Would make for fun tactical combat.

[Daynarr]

Well, I guess you will be interested in my new quadrant mod then. I have made 36 new standard systems that have more logic in placement (read - they are less random), so there won't be any ice oxygen planets right next to bright white star, or lots of nebulas in ancient quadrant (it is a theory that new stars are created in nebulas and they should be very rare in and old and dying galaxy - they are not typical storms). There are things you mentioned (in small quantities of course) like moons that have atmosphere and moons that have small size (or both). There are also two new star types - White Giant and Red Dwarf with their picture. The mod is FINISHED, but I am playtesting it now.
Btw. it can be used with Modpack and any other non-quadrant mod.

[Spyder]

Right you are, but, as I said most would not necessarily have atmospheres. The only one large enough to be called a planet seems to be in a binary planet symbiosis (gravitationally speaking) with Pluto supporting that if its too big, it becomes its own planet. But in all cases (I believe) the moons are Rock...no gas moons, no ice moons (probably are, but, this is further into Astronomy than I ventured ) and very few (comparatively) with atmospheres; all of which are around our largest gas giant.

In most cases the mass of the moon simply prohibits the ability to maintain an atmosphere...I have no idea why Jupiter's moons do...but, it takes a significant gravitational pull to hold any type of gas (atmosphere) in orbit and obviously they have it (with mother Jupiter's help, I'd guess).

But, back to the game....just build an atmosphere renewer on it and use it as a storage facility & shipyard. That is what I use all the Tiny planets for.



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Spyder, Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium

[Suicide Junkie]

There is no way that a planet could help a moon hold on to atmosphere. Jupiter's moons are just big, thats all.

Tiny planets would almost all be 'none' atmospheres (as well as moons)

Small planets would usually have atmospheres, and some of the biggest moons would be small planet size.

Assuming Earth-mars-venus type planets are the small end of medium sized (SE4 homeworld size)

[apache]

Um, you guys better review basic astronomy. Those 4 moons with atmospheres are not all around Jupiter. Io and Ganymede are, but Titan orbits Saturn, and Triton orbits Neptune.
Also, it is wrong to call Pluto's moon, Charon, a planet, because a planet is a large body orbiting a star. Moons orbit planets. And in general, anything that orbits something else is a satellite.
And there are ice moons in our solar system. Europa (Jupiter) is the most famous, since it is believed to be able to support life under its ice layer.

[Spyder]

No argument with either of you guys...however, I would like to know what's under that ice on Europa....rock maybe? or, is it just one big ball of ice? If its rock, does that make it an ICE planet/moon or a ROCK planet/moon?

And, as for Charon, it is a planet-sized moon which probably affects Pluto nearly as much as Pluto affects it....kinda like a binary star system...soooo...is it a planet with a moon, or two planets? The question is even more valid if there is question of its orbit...it was mentioned that some think it has its own orbit...<shrug>

The idea I was originally was trying to point out was that moons don't usually have enough mass to hold an atmosphere. That is probably why, in the game, all moons are rock with no atmosphere (that and the sake of simplicity).


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Spyder, Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium

[This message has been edited by Spyder (edited 01 March 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

Actually, half the moons are ice in SE4.

In fact, most moons are ice, but only if you're a Rock/None race.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 01 March 2001).]