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La to Ld

Labes

On a Terrestrial Class world, a Landslide geological feature

abbreviation : LA

Labeyrie

important Communion of Worlds member-system

labour

Generally, any sentient or sophont that through work contributes to the manufacture or production of commodities for the community; a sophont in employment.

Most labour is undertaken by specialized aioids (expert systems, dormbots, dedicated ai, etc.). However, in some endeavours, such as Uplift, ordinary nearbaselines are often voluntarily employed; an occupation that may take many years or decades to realize.

Labyrinth

Mars like world toward the outer Perseus Arm, known for its alien tunnel complex.

When first discovered, the planet seemed to be a fairly standard Arean type world. Seismic surveys discovered otherwise. First discovered at the North pole of the world and found to extend under its entire surface was a huge, apparently artificial, complex of tunnels and chambers, some of them nearly a kilometre across. As quickly as possible, an expedition was outfitted and a passage was drilled into the tunnel complex.

What the researchers found was astonishing. The entire tunnel complex is home to an underground ecology of great complexity. Totally adapted to the lightless existence of the caves, life forms rely on hearing, smell, touch, thermal perception and natural sonar to navigate a world without a sun.

Numerous artificial geothermal vents provide both heat and atmospheric gases which are processed by a complex of fungus and moss like plant forms into a breathable atmosphere. Deep wells and underground rivers, lakes and even small seas provide water. Life forms ranging in size from bacteria to larger than an elephant live in the cave complexes although no sapient life forms have ever been found.

The Labyrinth complex is believed to have been constructed some 10.7 million years ago by an unknown alien race. While archaeological studies have found the remains of machines which are believed to have been used to construct the tunnel complex, no other artifacts have been found. The purpose of the tunnel network whether habitat, experiment or artwork is unknown.

Todd Drashner

labyrinthodont

Any of a diverse subclass of small to large extinct terragen amphibia

Devonian to Cretaceous period (most common during the Carboniferous and early Permian), characterized by the labyrinthine pattern of folding of the tooth enamel. The largest forms attained 5 meters and more in length, but most were smaller. Some 6,500 species have been successfully lazurogened, ranging from the Devonian fish-like Acanthostega to the giant flat-headed Triassic Mastodonsaurus, but no more than twenty species have been fully provolved as yet. The largest selection of labyrinthodonts is to be found in the huge Westphalian D Orbitals of the Aristophane system [Sophic League), where all 2,680 known and unknown late Carboniferous terragen species have been lovingly recreated in their original environments

M. Alan Kazlev

Labyrinthus

On a Terrestrial Class world, a complex of intersecting valleys (pl. labyrinthi)

abbreviation : LB

laccolith

(plutonic formation, igneous intrusion) a geological formation found on actively sedimentary and usually Gaian Type worlds; in which magma trapped beneath the surface pushes the rock located above it into a dome shape.

The magma cools and solidifies, and eventually, as the fractured sedimentary rock above it erodes, is exposed. The resulting landform is characterized by a flat base and a convex upper surface. Laccoliths were particularly prized by the Auld Limner "demon painters", and are in high demand among some hyperturing aesthetic clades as local habitat decorations. Unfortunately, the number of naturally-formed laccoliths is too small to meet the demand, and there is a flourish black market trade, especially in the larger ( > 10 ⁶ tonnes); on some worlds unscrupulous poachers will laser an entire hill free, cut it into small chunks for transport, and then cunningly reassemble it with specially designed nanites, and present it to a buyer as a rare "intact" rock formation
Old Greek - "cistern stone"

M. Alan Kazlev

Lacus

On a Selenian Type world, a small plain

(from the Old Greek "lake")
abbreviation : LC

Lacustric Subtype

Lacustric Subtype Gaian Type worlds in which water covers 50 to 85% of the surface. Low surface relief leads to a weak oceanic climate, with high amounts of precipitation in some regions.

Planet Classification List

lagomorph

Order of terragen small herbivorous running and hopping mammals including rabbits and hares; a part of many terrestrial ecosystems. Several lagomorph species have been provolved; but the most successful forms are the Lepusans, or rabbit-splices

Lagoon Nebula

Lagrange Defenders

Lagrange points

In any system with one large and one small orbiting body (e.g. a planet and a moon, star and a planet, or a double planet or binary star), a set of five points where a still smaller body (e.g. a ship or habitat or smaller moon) would retain a fixed position with respect to the other two.

The Lagrange points are a set of five points that occur between two large objects, the gravitational force of the large objects is exactly equal to the centripetal force required to rotate with the objects (mathematically, these are libration solutions to the three body problem). At these points, a small orbiting object can orbit at a constant distance from both of the larger masses.

L1 - the point between the two bodies where the gravitational attractions negate each other ( in the case of CisLunar space - 325,000 kilometres from the Earth and 56,000 kilometres from the Moon).

L2 the point on the far side of one of the bodies, where the component forces combine (in CisLunar space - 447,000 kilometres from the Earth and 67,000 kilometres from the Moon).

L3 - a point in one of the bodies orbit directly opposite it (in CisLunar space - 380,000 kilometres from the Earth and 760,000 kilometres from the Moon).

These three points (L1, L2, and L3) are unstable; they are saddle-shaped gravitational valleys in which a body displaced perpendicular to the axis of two large objects is drawn back toward the axis. Since displacement along the axis can continue indefinitely, these as known as points of unstable equilibrium.

L4 - one of the two stable Lagrange points that forms an equilateral triangle with the two large masses. In CisLunar space this is the point 60Â° east (i.e., the direction of the Earth's rotation or counterclockwise) of the Moon, leading it in orbit around the Earth

L5 - the other stable Lagrange point. In CisLunar space is the point 60Â° west (clockwise) of the Moon, trailing it in orbit around the Earth.

L4 and L5 are each bowl-shaped gravitational valleys in which a body displaced in any direction returns to the centre and are therefore known as points of stable equilibrium. These are also known as Trojan points

Lagrange's theories were confirmed a century later with the discovery of the Trojan asteroids in the orbit of Jupiter in 1906, exactly where L4 and L5 would've been had Jupiter been the Moon and Sol been the Earth. The discovery was so profound at the time that, to this day, the L4 and L5 points in any orbit are referred to by astronomers as the leading or trailing Trojan points.

Lagrangian libration points are critical to the construction of orbital space habitats because they provide a stable point for large objects, which will continue to hold station with little expenditure of necessary propulsive mass for expensive course corrections. They also occupy an optimal position from their parent bodies in terms of both distance and velocity change (deltaV). Since the majority of velocity change (about 8.6 kilometres per second or two thirds of a total 12.7 kilometres per second deltaV) is expended in reaching low orbit, one can travel to or between any of the Lagrange colonies with equal ease. For these two reasons they are highly prized by space engineers and development corporations

(Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) , Old Earth Italian-French mathematician)