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PeteriDish — Colibri b - map WIP
Published: 2012-05-22 22:32:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 897; Favourites: 11; Downloads: 18
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Here is a WIP of a map for my alien planet which was originally created byThe "nice" numbers come from a "nice" axial tilt of 30 degrees, so the Tropics are 30° from the equator, and polar circles 60° from the equator. What is interesting, though, that the icecaps (80° from the equator) do not fill the entire polar regions. The icecaps are only seasonal on top of that, which means that the "bright" pole is always without the icecap, which only forms on the "dark" pole.
What's puzzling now is that there is no land reaching into the icecap regions. I'm wondering if I should leave it at that or if I should ask James to change the map. Another thing that's bugging me is that the icecaps wouldn't be the only white areas when the planet would be seen from space. But how far from the poles would the snow be in winter? (notice that the other hemisphere would be so warm it wouldn't even have an icecap! Even though the icecaps are small, their melting would cause great floods. That means thatboth hemispheres (northern/southern) would have different coastlines in summer and winter, which makes my head burn. How much of a difference would there be? It would depend on the steepness on the coast, there are so many variables! D=
Well, at this point, ANY advice or thought is more than welcome!
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Comments: 40
Well, this is shaping up to be quite a detailed world. Once you've got a fair number of creatures and terrains developed, you should totally consider writing little short stories set on you planet. Perhaps something in a documentary style.
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I'll try! Thank you! I was thinking about something similar - writing about the environment through the eyes of local animals
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btw it's a really cool idea with the ice caps. It's such a cool new habitat so different from what we have on earth. I imagine there could be whole group of "migrating scavengers" analogue to great herds of Africa, as certainly there would be much left dead/trapped after the floods are over. And as they are so regular I bet there would be any bigger plants there... which gives us desert. Desert filled with dead things of all sort.
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Well I hope the planet has really big moons then
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i've understood half of what you said, i did't get the land reaching icecap part :-/ and the coast
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Well, there is no land within the icecap regions, right? And if an icecap melts, there's a lot of extra water, right? So it's gonna go somewhere, right? Like the coastal regions.
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Ooh, I get it.
In short, absence of the antarcticas xD
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Kinda. There simply wouldn't be no icecaps which would stay in place throughout the entire year - you see, when one of the icecaps would grow, the other icecap would melt to such a degree where it would dissappear, (summer) the dissappeared icecap would start to form and grow to its full extent (winter) and the other icecap would melt at the same time until it dissapeears. you see, there would always be an icecap (there would be two icecaps during spring and autumn - those would be both very small) but either icecap would melt completely during summer season on that hemisphere
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well, that is quite a weather cycle. how long would a year be in earthen units?
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All you need to know is here: [link]
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such a short year and such a complicated weather system?
you sure this would work?
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why not 
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or that's 'normal' for them?
but still, it is a very extreme system
seriously, a melting and freezing icecap in 278 days? that's crazy!
wild imagination, i guess
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Well it's not crazy. the planet is closer to the star, but the star is not as bright/hot as sun which allows liquid water in a roughly Venus' distance from the star. that's why it has shorter year. it sounds crazy from our point of view, but a hot star could have life on one moon of a distant ice giant in contrast, and for the gas giant it could take centuries to finish one orbit! If the moon had liquid water on the surface, it would have decades of summer and decades of winter (while being periodically "blacked out" from the starlight by its parent planet), seasons would take extremely long periods of time to change, and they would last extremely long. You see, there is no "too fast" or "too slow" mark for water freezing or ice melting, because it all depends on the local circumcistances. the seasons would be shorter and change faster on a planet with shorter year than that of earth, and the opposite for a planet with longer year. You see, you may think that it's "impossible" that ice could freeze or melt that fast, but you have to remember that the pace at which our seasons change is directly dependent on the length of our year, so quicker change in shorter seasons (in comparison with earth) is only consequential if you have a shorter year. 
There is nothing strange about it in fact, it's all only a consequence of the basic properties of the planet and its distance from the star.
And besides, where would be the "fun" of making an "alien" planet if it was a "twin" of earth? Not that it would be impossible for an "earth's twin" to exist, it's just way less fun to pick such a planet for a xenobiology project.
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i didn't think of the 'external' factors xD
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it's fine, don't worry about it
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Quite honestly, the notion that complex fauna could withstand such rigorous climate change every season seems slightly implausible, though not impossible. Also, if one side of the ocean is constantly frozen while the other side is nearly tropical, then the salinity of the ocean would fluctuate to the extent that all of your oceanic life would likely die. As for the polar regions, keep in mind that ocean water is quite adverse to freezing, while the ground can have perpetual permafrost rather easily. Most likely, the ice covered land would nearly encompass all the way up to the 45 degree mark, so having diverse climate is not a huge concern in that respect. Further, keep in mind that Terran polar caps melt every year as well, and yet the coastlines do not show any significant change from space. Also, keep in mind that position on the globe is not necessarily the climate of the region, especially if you have such steep fluctuations of the oceans temperatures.
Hope that helped...
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Oh. Also keep in mind that at the time when one of the icecaps melts, the other one grows, so the "ice cover" remains roughly the same, but the distribution is different.
Would that still create salinity fluctuations? Either way, I think that local life would have ways how to cope with that, either by being very tolerant to changes or by migrating into places with suitable salinity. It's the same with birds. They either stay during the winter or follow the warmth to the south.
On another note, even though salty water is adverse to freezing, the icecaps on earth don't only cover dry land, but ocean too, right?
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No, not one side of the ocean, yous the little "strip" around the southern or northern pole
Just to avoid confusion, I know that the icecaps shrink in summer and grow in winter, and I didn't mean that the "bright" side would be all tropical and the "dark" side all antarctic, this is meant to be an over all slightly warmer planet than earth, which is why I am not sure how far would the snowy regions extend, but the "permanent ice cover" would be very small. That's why I have trouble imagining what would the winter look like...
At least the coasts can stay the same
About the life... Keeep in mind that there are "tolerant" organisms on earth too, which can withstand going from "extreme to extreme" changes in their habitat, desert animals have to cope with heat during the day and cold during the night, and some plants need to be burnt by fire in order to release seeds. And also remember that what you say would be true for most EARTHLY organisms - they would die there, because they are not adapted to such changes - but I can see no problem why that would prevent LOCAL complex life. Billions of years of natural selection in such environment would favor the hardiest of the hardiest, and those could diversificate.
And yeah, you've definitely helped! Thank you!
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I think it looks good didnt you have a satilite looking image of this map some were as for the poles i dunno i gues the melting and refreezing could be benaficial to certain animals as the effect on the geography i dunno
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Yes I have such an image: [link] but it was too obvious that it was just an editted earth's map, which is why James stepped in.
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Well maybe he can work his magic
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I have no doubts about that
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It looks like a giant hummingbird chasing a stegosaurus. <3
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Hahahah
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lol XD Your totally right!
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And the stegosaurus looks so happy about it ^^
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