Yucopia Project (Massive, Collaborative, and Recruiting New)

[rickardspaghetti]

Wouldn't there be something like seasons still? Wouldn't the climate be considerably different when our world is between its planet and the sun than when its on the opposite side of its planet? If it where tidaly locked there would be one side of our world that never sees the planet and one side that always do. This, I believe, would have a huge impact on society, fauna, and flora. What do you think?

[Lukas Kelly]

Would the climate be different? I think it would be something more like an extended night, like in the northern and southern parts of our world. I could be wrong though, I'm not exactly an expert on this.

[rickardspaghetti]

We'll have to wait for Ebba... sorry, Lyhoko Leaci to enlighten us.

[Lukas Kelly]

Yea, btw, do you know what that is about?

[rickardspaghetti]

What? Her name change? No.

[Astraios]

If we were on a tidally-locked moon, the side facing the planet - according to my thinking - would have:

1. Night - when it is between the star and the planet.

2. Half-Day - when it is at the side of the planet - the sun's light would probably not extend all the way across the planet-facing side before our moon slips behind the planet's shadow.

3. Night - when it is behind the planet's shadow.

4. Half-Day - when it is at the other side of the planet - same as above, but on the opposite quarter-sphere of the planet-facing side.

I don't know how accurate that is, but the planet-facing side would be cooler and darker, as only half of it would get sunlight during the "days", but it would have two "nights" during a single orbit.

The starward side would be more like Earth.



Disclaimer: I'm not an expert in planetary physics, so this is just intuition.

[rickardspaghetti]

But going from in-front of the planet to behind the planet is one big change in distance to the sun. Wouldn't they notice it getting cooler when behind the planet?

[Lyhoko Leaci]

The side of the moon that faces the planet will have an eclipse every day. Io, with a day/month length of 42 hours, has a roughly 2 hour period of darkness each noon. This eclipse will reduce the amount of light the moon receives during the day, but it is possible the "moon"-light from the planet will make up for this during the night. Meanwhile, the side facing away from the planet will have more ordinary days.

As for seasons, there won't be much of any, unless the parent planet has a noticeably eccentric orbit, which will cause both the northern and southern hemispheres to have wall or summer at the same time. The sun would also grow and shrink in the sky.

Obviously, this would cause major effects to society. Effects to flora and fauna, I don't know about, and might not be as obvious.

1. Night - when it is between the star and the planet.

2. Half-Day - when it is at the side of the planet - the sun's light would probably not extend all the way across the planet-facing side before our moon slips behind the planet's shadow.

3. Night - when it is behind the planet's shadow.

4. Half-Day - when it is at the other side of the planet - same as above, but on the opposite quarter-sphere of the planet-facing side.

Pretty much, though the planet will be a significant source of light during the first night, and the entire planet moon gets lit during the half days. Well, the entire sunward side at least gets lit.

But going from in-front of the planet to behind the planet is one big change in distance to the sun. Wouldn't they notice it getting cooler when behind the planet?

No, the difference in distance to the sun of a moon orbiting a planet is not very significant compared to the distance between the planet and the sun. Earth's moon varies in distance from the sun by about .005 AUs each orbit. Earth's distance from the sun is 1 AU.

[rickardspaghetti]

Hmm... So how's it gonna be? Are we gonna have a planet or a moon?

[Nannalu]

To me, I don't necessarily mind. I am leaning towards moon only because it's a bit different because everything we've done so far is so..... Earth-like.

[Lukas Kelly]

Once we decide, we need to compile this info, because something like an eclipse could affect beliefs of a people.

[Lukas Kelly]

Guys, I just created a Mythology page that we can all add to.

[Torco]

I vote we orbit the star and have a regular lunoid moon, mostly because I don't want to deal with the high complexity of radically different planetary setting: for funk I say we have 40 hour days and no seasons, or dramatic seasons, or something. orbiting a jovian is a shitload of different, makes for obscene tides, and in general induces too much funk. I'd go with earthlike, as opposed to funky.

maybe that should be our first vote? funky planet vs. earthlike planet?

I vote earthlike

[Lukas Kelly]

I vote earthlike with alterations.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

Actually, tides would be quite small for the orbiting a Jovian, as the planet is already tidally locked. The sun would be the only source of tides.

And I vote for the moon.

(We could always have the side that faces the main planet be the side where there aren't many people...)

[Cockroach]

Great! I'm working on it right now

Also my vote goes to a mirror Earth (24 hour day, G star, one moon, ~1 AU distance, etc). In fact, I would just as soon have it be a substitute Earth. Don't get me wrong, thinking of different circumstances for the planet/moon's formation is really fun, but as I understood it, the point of this project was to focus on the people, and making it a moon/faster spinning/farther away from the sun would not only be distracting but would introduce foreign variables that may make some of the things that happen in our world (for example, the life forms) change in a really radical way.

[maıráí]

Sorry for any mix ups, but I'm definitely handing in my quitting slip now.
>_> So busy! It's like Fate would rather the Sino didn't exist!

[Astraios]

I vote for a moon (because I would get to be nearer the planet-facing side, and that would be cool), populated with mostly Earth life-forms, or at least things that have evolved to be just like Earth-creatures. It's too much work (for me) to come up with new life-forms across the board, but one or two here and there is fine.

[rickardspaghetti]

I think the moon idea sounds really cool, but I'm gonna vote for Earthlike planet instead.

[Torco]

4 to 2 by my tally

and yeah, what cockroach said, focusing on the people and not the astronomy.

I still think it would be cool to add some funk, maybe even a watery moon with life or shorter days, or maybe even a white dwarf instead of an Oort cloud, but making it a moon would be too funky, I think.

[Nannalu]

4-3.

And Moons are more likely to harbour life, BTW. With them being tidally locked and having seas and all that.

[Nannalu]

My idea for a name:
Eirene (Anc. Gk. for peace.)

[Astraios]

My idea for a name:
Eirene (Anc. Gk. for peace.)

No, because this was my great-grandmother's name, so all I think of is knitting and soap and wrinkles. Which is not inspiring in the slightest.

[Nannalu]

Ucopaea.

Like YUCOP-ia.

[Astraios]

Why not just call it Yucopia?