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The Moon looks pretty rad tonight
I was writing my astronomy homework about the moon and tried to write
“the moon appears red during a total lunar eclipse […]”
but instead I accidentally wrote
“the moon appears rad during a total lunar eclipse”
Well… I… I guess it does, if you wanna think about it that way.
Some fanart (a rarity for me) for my favorite podcast: @wolf359radio, a sci-fi audio drama about a handful of people floating, tiny and alone, a long way from home.
Horizon is an independent, original suggestion-based webcomic currently hosted on MSPFA about the efforts of three individuals to try to understand the nature and purpose of a large, powerful, and vaguely unethical superscience organization. Submit commands on MSPFA or DeviantArt to help Nine, Gammon, and Dr. Thorne discover what lies beyond the horizon.
HELLLLLL YESSSSSS
only took ‘em 55 years, lmao.
On that note, however, here’s a graphic I whipped up in about an hour immediately after hearing the news last night.
The nearest single star to the sun apparently hosts a big, icy planet.
Astronomers have found strong evidence of a frigid alien world about 3.2 times more massive than Earth circling Barnard’s Star, a dim red dwarf that lies just 6 light-years from the sun. Barnard’s Star is our sun’s nearest neighbor, apart from the three-star Alpha Centauri system, which is about 4.3 light-years away.
Continue Reading.
The United Nations of Humanity is the international governing body of almost all Earth-descended polities and territories in known space. Founded in 2210 CE after the independence movements of Mars and the Belt necessitated a reorganization of the original UN, the UNH of the 30th century is composed of hundreds of member star systems across a sphere of influence nearly twenty parsecs in diameter. It is the largest member of the United Spacefaring Sophonts Coalition and one of the two founding members (alongside the Ra’na InterGlobal Council). The UNH has no primary seat, as all business is conducted through ansible teleconference: a vastly simpler way to organize representatives across sixty-five thousand cubic lightyears of space. Members of the UNH include the United Sol System, Centauri Republic, New Nations of Helios, and Dogstar Alliance, to name a few.
The symbology of the UNH emblem is simple. The asymmetrical five digits of the human hand provide a clear distinction from the other species of the cosmos; we are the only species with hands like ours. Beyond that, the hand represents something much deeper. Handprints are ubiquitous in prehistoric cave art found all over the human homeworld, Earth, and have withstood the test of time. Even today, leaving an impression of one's hand in media echoes the purpose of the ancient hands: it is a testament to our existence, a call into the future that in this place and time, a human person was alive and awake. A footprint may show that we have stood in a spot, but a handprint shows we have lived there.
I'm in the process of giving the Diaspora star map a much-needed aesthetic overhaul. It's turning out pretty well so far! Here's the first stage: up to 10 ly from Sol.
Some notes:
all stars (four and eight points) signify an individual star, colored according to its spectral type.
eight-pointed stars are the homesuns of sapient species.
stars with rings have at least one planet. green rings indicate native life present; red rings indicate prior terraformation by the extinct Hemeran civilization.
the two other markers, one white dot and one white dot with an angled ring, indicate rogue interstellar planets.
the map is arranged by right ascension (celestial X coordinate) and distance, so the +/- number above each system is its declination (celestial Y coordinate).
the arrows at the center indicate the directions of the galactic core and rim, using the symbols of Sagittarius and Orion, respectively (although this map is aligned to right ascension which means the plane we're viewing is actually almost perpendicular to the galactic disk)
Second stage complete! Now featuring all systems out to 15 ly from Sol.
Additional notes:
The green-colored rogue planet, Murray-Callahan, is the only unbound interstellar object (UIO) known to harbor life.
The blue links in the network are systems and routes that are claimed by the United Nations of Humanity.
The yellow links in the network are systems and routes that are claimed by the Ra'na InterGlobal Council.
The turquoise links in the network are systems and routes that are claimed by the Worldtribe.
Grey links are neutral and under jurisdiction of the United Spacefaring Sophonts Coalition, usually either crucial hub systems or systems with carefully managed native life.
I'm in the process of giving the Diaspora star map a much-needed aesthetic overhaul. It's turning out pretty well so far! Here's the first stage: up to 10 ly from Sol.
Some notes:
all stars (four and eight points) signify an individual star, colored according to its spectral type.
eight-pointed stars are the homesuns of sapient species.
stars with rings have at least one planet. green rings indicate native life present; red rings indicate prior terraformation by the extinct Hemeran civilization.
the two other markers, one white dot and one white dot with an angled ring, indicate rogue interstellar planets.
the map is arranged by right ascension (celestial X coordinate) and distance, so the +/- number above each system is its declination (celestial Y coordinate).
the arrows at the center indicate the directions of the galactic core and rim, using the symbols of Sagittarius and Orion, respectively (although this map is aligned to right ascension which means the plane we're viewing is actually almost perpendicular to the galactic disk)
Mercury is a small, airless world in the deep inner Sol system, the closest planet to its sun and consequently a world of thermal extremes. Its solar day is over 1400 metric hours long, meaning that any point of the surface is exposed to sunlight for 700 hours or more. Because of this Mercury isn't an especially populated world –just under twenty million souls live and work almost entirely beneath its rocky crust– but the surface facilities shine brightly because there is no atmosphere to dull their light.
Much of Mercury’s 19.4 million inhabitants are concentrated in the capital city of Lóng Cháo, embedded into and under the surface of Rachmaninoff Crater (seen here on the terminator line, in the northern hemisphere). Its orbital space, however, is busier, serving as a hub for the ore traders hauling raw materials from one side of the solar system to the other.
Mercury is an autonomous territory of the United Sol System, as part of the Inner System Territories. Its flag, an inverted monochrome depiction of its penumbra, is shown below the main image.
more worldbuilding stuff! photobash of a future human-inhabited Mercury, plus its flag, created for my hard science fiction setting Diaspora. done using assets from Space Engine.
Venus is the second planet in the Sol system, an Earth-sized rocky world with a dense, hot CO2 atmosphere and aggressively volcanic surface. The only habitable zone of Venus is a relatively thin layer of atmosphere some fifty kilometers above the surface, where the temperature and pressure closely resemble conditions at sea level on Earth.
Because of this air layer, the skies of Venus are swarming with aerostat habitats to support its 25.4 million inhabitants (seen here as a scattering of hazy glowing dots in the thin crescent of twilight). The largest aerostat is the capital city of Najam Alsabah, nestled in the lower stratosphere. One of the key drivers of Venus’ growing population is its wealth: the territory has become quite prosperous over the last several centuries due to the harvest and export of valuable, rare chemicals such as nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorous.
Venus is an autonomous territory of the United Sol System, as part of the Inner System Territories. Its flag, a bicolor high-contrast depiction of its vast atmospheric cloud waves, is shown below the main image.
at last, some more worldbuilding stuff! photobash of a future human-inhabited Venus, plus its flag, created for my hard science fiction setting Diaspora. done using assets from Space Engine.
The planet Earth is the third planet in the Sol system, a vibrant terran world with a diverse biosphere recovering from a near-miss ecological collapse. It has six major landmasses surrounded by vast oceans of liquid water, and its atmosphere is a comfortable nitrogen-oxygen blend at a pressure that is dense enough to protect but not enough to crush. It also has one relatively large, airless, rocky moon, called Luna (or simply "the Moon.")
Earth is also home to an indigenous sophont species: humans, one of the founding members of the Coalition of Spacefaring Civilizations. Because of its deep pre-spaceflight cultural history, it is one of a minority of worlds divided into nations, hence its primary governing body being the United Nations of Earth -the ancestor to most of humankind's modern administrative structure. Being Earth's only natural moon, Luna was the site of humans' first forays into extraterrestrial exploration, and today is an industrial powerhouse under the flag of the UN Autonomous Territory of Luna. The Earth-Moon Union (EMU, for short; top flag) is composed of the United Nations of Earth (bottom left flag) and the Autonomous Territory of Luna (bottom right flag), with its primary seat being Midway Station located at the L-1 gravitational stability keyhole between Earth and Luna.
As the birthplace of the human species, the Earth is the most populous and powerful asteropolitical entity in the Sol system, and quite possibly in the entire United Nations of Humanity. Earth itself has a population of just over 8 billion, which has stayed relatively stable since the 21st century. Together with the Moon’s 240 million inhabitants, the total population of the EMU is about 8.4 billion, almost four times that of the next largest entity in the system (Mars).
While Luna’s primary industry in the modern day is mining, Earth’s rich cultural and biological history makes it a tourist destination renowned across known space, though it has stringent biosecurity. For many, it is even a spiritual experience, some going so far as to make it their life’s goal to retire on Earth and connect with the home of their ancestors. Centuries of ecological engineering and conservation have managed to avert the effects of early human industry, restoring the world to a natural balance and even reviving many species driven extinct by human error. Today, one can watch herds of mammoth roam the Siberian tundra, visit dodo birds on Mauritius, or experience the return of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. 30th century Earth is a good place to be, and humanity is collectively proud of their home: the cradle of the Diaspora.
hey look, more art! been a hot minute. photobash of a future Earth and its well-settled Moon, plus their flags, created for my hard science fiction setting Astra Planeta. done using assets from Space Engine.
STAGE THREE, EVERYBODY GIVE IT UP FOR STAGE 3
This is where things get COMPLICATED. Damn thing looks like an eldritch horror but I'm PROUD of it. Two more phases to go.
Additional notes:
Added perpendicular dashes in a network line to show a connection that bypasses a given marker(s), due to the limits of 3D space being represented in 2D. Hopefully this is intuitive.
The orange links in the network are systems and routes claimed by the Rimor Corporate Conglomerate.
The darker green links in the network are systems and routes claimed by the Xib Zjhar. Their systems do not link to any others because they are an isolationist culture.
The purple links in the network are systems and routes claimed by the Allied Tribes of Calypso. Very few systems are under their jurisdiction due to their inexperience with spaceflight and the rarity of their required environmental conditions.
Yeah, I know I forgot Furuhjelm 46. I'll fix it later. And yeah, I know Xi Bootis is well beyond the 20ly-boundary. I put it there bc I had the G/K binary marker copied and was saving myself some labor later.
LP 816-60 should have a Worldtribe designation, probably a Qaryn number. I'll fix it later.
Multiple brown dwarf systems are potential candidates for Calypsian habitation, but I have some stuff to figure out about them first.
I'm in the process of giving the Diaspora star map a much-needed aesthetic overhaul. It's turning out pretty well so far! Here's the first stage: up to 10 ly from Sol.
Some notes:
all stars (four and eight points) signify an individual star, colored according to its spectral type.
eight-pointed stars are the homesuns of sapient species.
stars with rings have at least one planet. green rings indicate native life present; red rings indicate prior terraformation by the extinct Hemeran civilization.
the two other markers, one white dot and one white dot with an angled ring, indicate rogue interstellar planets.
the map is arranged by right ascension (celestial X coordinate) and distance, so the +/- number above each system is its declination (celestial Y coordinate).
the arrows at the center indicate the directions of the galactic core and rim, using the symbols of Sagittarius and Orion, respectively (although this map is aligned to right ascension which means the plane we're viewing is actually almost perpendicular to the galactic disk)
It wrinkles my brain that Jupiter’s moon Europa has oceans that are sixty miles deep, while Earth’s oceans only reach seven miles deep at most. I’m willing to bet good money that there’s life in Europa’s oceans. Like five bucks. You hear me, NASA? I bet you five bucks that there’s life on Europa… Now that there’s money and reputation on the line, I bet they send a mission there real quick.
Major UNH Members
A brief list of the largest (by population) members of the interstellar United Nations of Humanity in the Astra Planeta canon.
United Sol System
System: Sol Seat: Gaea Station, Earth orbit Population: 12.78 billion
Centauri Republic
System: Alpha Centauri Seat: Chiron Station, Fortuna-Concordia circumbinary orbit Population: 18.45 billion
New Nations of Helios
System: Helios (Barnard's Star) Seat: Astraeus Station, Hemeran orbit Population: 9.56 billion
Dogstar Federation
Systems: Sirius, Procyon, Luyten's Star, Kapetyn's Star, Ross 614, Lucina, Itzpapalotl, Erra Seat: Remus Station, Procyon Prime orbit Population: 11.54 billion
Winds of Anemos
System: Anemos (HH Andromedae) Seat: Port Magellan, Hippotes, Tempest Belt Population: 3.4 billion
Pantheon Alliance
Systems: Olympia (AX Microscopii), Othrys (Lacaille 9352), Erebus (EZ Aquarii) Seat: None Population: 22.6 billion
Takamagahara Unitary Republic
System: Takamagahara (61 Cygni) Seat: Tengokyokai Station, Inari orbit Population: 7.08 billion
October 4, 2181: The UNSS Skyward Spirit ignites its massively powerful fusion drive in cislunar space, beginning its 24-year round trip to Proxima Centauri. Visible on the Moon are the cities of Byrd, Guǎnghángōng, Apollo City, Tsiolkovskiy, Tycho, and Shackleton, as well as many smaller settlements, all connected by the lunar rail system. Off the sunward limb of the Moon one can also spot the city-station Tsukuyomi in low orbit, with half a dozen vessels in its vicinity. Taken by an unknown photographer at dawn on the west bank of Lake Tanganyika (DRC), using a telescopic lens.
a rare Spy Art appears! photobash of the moment humankind started their very first journey to another sun in my hard science fiction setting Astra Planeta. edited in Paint.NET using a screenshot from Space Engine.
"We're finally out of the cradle. Of the hundred billion humans who ever lived, we're the first to stand beneath an alien sky."
— CDR Anna Wilson's first words on Mars; Oct. 3, 2018 CE
The Ares program was a crewed spaceflight project led by NASA, in collaboration with other members of the United Nations Aerospace Coalition, that succeeded in its milestone goal of landing humans on the surface of Mars. From its announcement in 2010 it took another eight years of preparation, training, and construction before the first mission was ready to begin.
Ares 1 was launched in mid-2018 and reached the red planet a few months later. At 10:45:33 UTC on October 3rd, 2018, commander Anna Wilson of the United States became the first human being to ever set foot on Mars and the first living thing on the planet in almost four billion years. Ares 1, and the four missions to follow, greatly enriched humanity's understanding of Mars. Ares 5 returned home in early 2028, ending the first crewed Mars exploration phase and opening the door for the next.
The Ares program was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to humankind at the time, and captivated the public imagination for over a decade. Like its predecessors Apollo and Artemis, it is widely recognized across the 30th-century human diaspora as a key reason for humankind's modern status as adept starfarers, best expressed by Commander Wilson in her first words upon touching the Martian surface: "We're finally out of the cradle."
Since the last update my previous computer beefed it, and I almost lost all of my work! However, I managed to FINISH the star charting sheet that I use as a basis for the map, and I've been working on the map again on my interim laptop, so here's another update!
Changes:
Changed a few star names and shuffled a few more systems around.
Added a couple of stars just outside the 20 ly boundary.
Added some new network links and altered the civ claims of some existing ones.
Apparently the white dwarfs Sirius B and Keid B throw off such strong UV radiation that they ionize the ISM around them to distances as far as a few lightyears! These regions of ionized hydrogen are called Strömgren spheres, and I added them to the map as fuchsia circles around the aforementioned stars.
Also added the Local Cloud and G-Cloud: nearby regions of unusually dense neutral hydrogen in the ISM. They don't really affect interstellar navigation and aren't visible to the naked eye, but they're pretty background elements.
I'm in the process of giving the Diaspora star map a much-needed aesthetic overhaul. It's turning out pretty well so far! Here's the first stage: up to 10 ly from Sol.
Some notes:
all stars (four and eight points) signify an individual star, colored according to its spectral type.
eight-pointed stars are the homesuns of sapient species.
stars with rings have at least one planet. green rings indicate native life present; red rings indicate prior terraformation by the extinct Hemeran civilization.
the two other markers, one white dot and one white dot with an angled ring, indicate rogue interstellar planets.
the map is arranged by right ascension (celestial X coordinate) and distance, so the +/- number above each system is its declination (celestial Y coordinate).
the arrows at the center indicate the directions of the galactic core and rim, using the symbols of Sagittarius and Orion, respectively (although this map is aligned to right ascension which means the plane we're viewing is actually almost perpendicular to the galactic disk)