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Solaris

Carbon world surrounded by a low-gravity Ribbonworld megastructure

ribbonworld
Image from Steve Bowers
Solaris, a carbon world, has oceans of hydrocarbons and an atmosphere rich in organic compounds; there is, however, no life on this world. The planet is currently surrounded by a habitable, low-gravity Ribbonworld structure, mostly constructed from carbon and other materials minde on this world.

Star: HD 222788
Type: GO
Luminosity: 10.8 x Sol
Distance from Sol: 796 ly
Constellation: Pegasus
First Colonised: 3955 A.T.
Planet Solaris
Semimajor axis 3.16 AU
Orbital period 4.13 standard yearts
Diameter 9559 km
Type Adamean (carbon-rich world)
Ribbonworld Constructed: 5911 AT.
Diameter of Ribbonworld 50,000km

Solaris is a Carbon world with extensive hydrocarbon oceans. The world was named after a fictional world described by the Atomic Age fabulist Stanislaw Lem; unlike Lem's imaginary world, the oceans on this world are lifeless.

Solaris is surrounded in the current era by a low-gravity megastructure known as a Ribbonworld.

To construct the Ribbonworld, first a dynamic orbital ring was constructed in low orbit, and carbon was exported from the surface along numerous short beanstalks. The ribbonworld was built at a distance of 25,000 km from the planet's centre, slowly rotating to maintain shape and to provide a minimal gravity. The biosphere it contains is dominated by giant low gravity trees; many of the clades living there use geneered or artificial wings to get around.

Many inhabitants follow Solarism; others follow the clan-based organisational ethics of House Genen. These two groups are not always mutually exclusive.

 
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Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 15 December 2011.

 
 
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