Cygnet XIV

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Cygnet XIV is a member of the United Federation of Planets, and the homeworld of the Cygnian race. It is the 14th planet overall of the Cygnet system and one of the three inhabitable planets.

The planet orbits it's parent stars, the B-C pair of Cygnet, at 1.435 AU. It is a Class M planet, with a planetary mass and radius equal to 1.15 times of Earths, and a gravity just slightly heavier (1.018 Earth gravities), and slightly less dense than Earth at .958 Earth densities. Like most life supporting worlds, it has a strong magnetic field, and mobile plate tectonics, with most volcanic activity at the edges of plates. From space, it is a bit of a contrast: the land is blue, green, or red, but the water is a deep purple-blue due to the dominant elements and adapted life of the seas. When Cygnetians first reached space, the picture of their planet from the first manned expedition, to their moon, was called "A Drop of Deep Violet Blue In The Dark"

Cygnet XIV's local calendar is 458.8 local days, with a length of 25 standard hours. Every 5 years, there is an intercaluclary holiday of 4 days added at the end of the year to keep the calendar in sync with the rotation of the planet.

About as hot as Earth, with an average surface temperature of 290K (16.85° C), Cygnet's seasons are a bit more extreme due to it's increased obliquity (29.5° vs Earth's 23°)[notes 1] It is less covered in water than Earth, at 79%, and has five large continents, and many archipelagos of islands, particularly in the northern hemisphere. Archaeological evidence suggest that pre-sentient life is only 740 million years old, which is much older than what developed on Earth, but it developed far faster, at only 3.06 billion years after formation. First life is suspected to happen with deep abiogenesis at 360 million years after formation.

While it's Earth-habitable, human, and human-similar phyisologies are cautioned that it has a lower oxygen partial atmospheric pressure of .19342, compared to the Earth standard of .215[notes 2]. As such, respirators are required for human-standard breathers going more than 13287ft (4053 m) above sea level, such as to the Cygnian temple-city of Stardance, nestled in the mountains of the Oceanrise archipelago at 14215 ft (4332.7 m) above sea level.

In addition, due to it's thicker atmosphere (1.4* times Earth), many non Cygnians do not find they want to reside long on the planet. However, this leads to the much whiter-blue skies of Cygnet, and the spectacular red sunsets, especially on the days that all three suns are visible in the same direction, which often have specific viewing locations and times setup for interstellar tourists.[notes 3]

Cygnet's three stars are visible at different times from Cygnet XIV, and it has a moon of approximately 2.1* Earth's moon's mass visible. Cygnet's primary, a A7V class star, is a harshly brilliant dot viewable at certain times (approximately 1391 times weaker than Earth's sun during the day), however, it's day is dominated by the closely orbiting binary stars (G3V and K2V), both yellow - are a discs smaller than the size of Earth's sun in the sky but nearly as bright individually[notes 4], and together, are approximately 110% as bright as Earth's sun.[notes 5]

Cygnet XIV's moon, Sehzair, completes a cycle every 24.21 days, and has an orbital period longer than it's local day of 26.14 hours. Due to it's size and orbital distance, Sehzair's full moon phase is larger than both the suns of Cygnet XIV; and also larger than the Earth's moon by 23%.[notes 6]. The phase is [TODO: Work out apparent phases, relative brightness]

References


Notes

  1. It also means it's solstices, the longest and shortest day are longer and shorter, correspondingly. The longest day lasts 17.29 hours vs 15.44 hours at 45° latitude, and shortest is 7.66 hours vs 8.69 hours. Also, the "Arctic Circle" of full daylight/full darkness starts at 61° latitude rather than 65~66° latitude of Earth
  2. There is insufficient partial pressure from Carbon Dioxide or Nitrogen for humans to worry about reducing filters.
  3. Think RGB: (201,246,255)
  4. The hotter, G3V star, is 24.9 arcminutes, and the cooler, K2V star, is 27.9 arcminutes.
  5. I worked out the math, thanks to a handy guide, but anything that requires use of arcsin is unfun. Still, useful, no?
  6. Yes, Cygnet XIV has no lunar eclipses.


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