The
Encyclopędia Planetę
Xi Ursae Majoris BaBb
The Alula Australis System
And the
primary world of Diaspora
presented by
the Exploration Society's Institute of Planetological Natural History
Alula Inferior is the inner most of this
system's family of planets. Hermian in nature, its surface is
brilliantly colored with the reflected light of two suns and a surface rich in
heavy metals.
Alula Calx, also a Hermian world, is much
more silicate-rich than its inward neighbor, and as such
presents a more bland and typical surface. Echoes of ancient massive
impacts can be seen on the
surface, like ripples in a frozen sea of stone.
Alula Fervens is a Cytherean world, its
clouds thick with sulfuric acid, its surface temperature in
excess of 500 degrees Celsius. This surface is largely barren, covered
with lava flows and ragged
geological features. In the background can be seen the two Selenian moons.
The innermost moon of Alula Fervens is
Baal, a Selenian world. It is a rather featureless moon, lacking
any major impact basins. From a distance, it is almost a featureless gray
ball. The orbits of Baal and its
sibling moon, Moloch, are such that total eclipses of them are a regular event
on Alula Fervens. In this
shot, Baal's shadow is seen on the planet.
Alula Ferven's outer moon, the Selenian
world of Moloch. Unlike its sibling, this moon presents a
more typical face, with ancient cratered highlands and lower, more recent
maria. The planet itself is
in the background, with Baal visible just above Moloch's limb, to the right.
Another example of a fairly regular event
on Alula Fervens - a double eclipse.
Diaspora is a GaianCampian world, but
remains young and its landmasses remain barren of complex
life. Most of the world's biomass is located in the oceans. The
landmass is a single supercontinent
centered on the north pole, and this is topped by a remarkably symmetrical ice
cap. It was this arrange-
ment which inspired the world to be named Diaspora, for it seemed to resemble a
world with a crown.
The southern hemisphere is open ocean, and hosts a relatively warm climate,
despite the thin atmosphere
and small planetary mass.
From the surface of Diaspora, one is
treated to a comparatively rare sight in the Local Neighborhood,
the presence of four suns in the sky. The distant pair make little impact
in the sky, as far as concerns
of the environment go. But the beauty of the vision is unparalleled.
Also visible in the sky is the
distant planet of Alula Fervens.
Diaspora's single Selenian moon, Gemma, is
so named because of its spectacular surface, color-stained
by solar radiation interacting with abundant mineral deposits. In a few
billion years more, the surface
will have been dulled by cosmic radiation and further impact events so that it
is a more typical gray or
brown.
As one departs Diaspora, four suns are
visible rising above the red of the planet's curving atmosphere.
This is a rare image in the Local Neighborhood, and one of nearly unrivaled
beauty.
The furthest planet, Alula Posterior, is a
heavily glaciated EuArean world. However, unlike most planets
of this type, it is so thick with glaciers that it may never again pass through
its Sisyphean Cycle.
When the system was younger and the suns brighter, this cycle was quite active.
From the surface of Alula Posterior, the
thin atmosphere of nitrogen and carbon dioxide is startlingly
clear, as the ice-covered surface keeps much dust from becoming airborne.
Here, rising above an ice-
covered surface, is the Selenian moon Glacialis. Above it, visible only as
a bright star, is one of the
planet's three asteroidal moons.
The Selenian moon of Glacialis, with Alula
Posterior in the background. This moon, like other rocky
bodies in this system, possesses some startling coloration, due to youth and
extensive exposure
of minerals. But this moon also possesses an icy surface; the demarcation
between ice and exposed
rock is clear.
The innermost of Alula Posterior's three
asteroidal moons. Carbide in nature, it also has the highest
degree of silicates in its composition. It is thought that the three
asteroidal moons had a single origin,
possibly the remains of a single body that broke up and became gravitationally
captured after a close
encounter with the planet.
The second of the three asteroidal moons,
Medius, is also Carbide in nature, and has a higher
concentration of carbon compounds.
The outermost of the asteroidal moons of
Alula Posterior, Extremus is a mystery. Its nearly featureless
surface is largely devoid of major impact craters, and there is a single hole
bored into its surface, nearly
a kilometer in diameter. It is theorized that this may have been the
beginning of construction for a
Gateway, the space-born counterpart to a planet's ArcWay. For whatever
reasons, however, the work
was halted. It is indeed possible that, if this is the case, then this
system may have been in preparation
for the ArcBuilders when their civilization mysteriously vanished.