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Based on the possible Mission of the SS Fram to Wolf 359:
Wolf 359
'''Wolf 359''' is a small, dim, type M red dwarf star located approximately 7.7 light years from the Earth in the constellation Leo, near the ecliptic. It is classified as a UV Ceti-type flare star, and has a relatively high flare rate.
Wolf 359 is one of the nearest stars to the solar system; only the [[Alpha Centauri] system and [[Barnard's Star] are known to be closer.
Neither a Hubble search, nor a cursory fly-by by the Trekkies in late 2009 seemed to suggest the existence of a planetary. when the SS Fram visited Wolf 359 in a projected six month mission, it did detect a planetary system of four planets and one asteroid belt, with two planets forming a double planet system. That is was not detected is based on the systems eccliptic being different from most other planetary systems detected up to them.
== Planets ==
=== Heimdal ===
Named after the warden of Odin, Heimdal is a planet of the Hot-Neptune type, orbiting Wolf 359 in a closer orbit then Mercury orbits Sol. Because of this closeness, Heimdal does not possess any moons.
=== Muspellsheimr and Nifelheimr ===
This double planet system the single most important discovery of the entire Wolf 359 mission of the ''SS Fram'' as both planets are, while being situated well outside the Green Zone, bearing life. However both worlds are polar opposites.
==== Muspellsheimr ====
Named after the Norse Primordial element of Fire, Muspellsheimr, this planet is just that. Twice the size of Earth with a surface gravity of 1.5g, the planet is extremely geologically active and is currently the world with the most volcanoes. The planet does have a Nitrogen-Oxygen atmosphere, but it is not breathable by humans due to the presence of various toxins and a pressure of 10 bar on the planetary surface. Even through not close enough to its sun top be heated by it, the volcanic activity heats the atmosphere to a cozy 40 degrees Celsuis at average.
About 50 percent of the surface are covered by water through it is more of a thick soup like sludge containing a large amount of volcanic ash and sand. However it is also teething with microbial life as well as higher developed life forms.
The lower atmosphere of Muspellsheimr is likewise rather thick with volcanic ash and mircobial life, making it hard to see further then about fifty meters at good times of a day.
This does not preclude the existence of higher forms of life however. The dominant life form is a eight legged elephantine creature that absorbs food directly through its skin by processing the thick atmosphere. They were named FROB by the crew of the SS Fram. Other lower life forms exist as well, through there are no known predators due to the presence of nutriments all around them.
==== Nifelheimr ====
Named after the Norse Primordial element of Ice, Muspellsheimr, this planet is just that. Being the size of Titan, this planet is not as geological active as its twin, but enough to warm it up slightly. However the surface temperature does not raise over about -30 degrees Celsius with the common temperature being about -45 degrees Celsius.
Surrounded by a nitrogen atmosphere similar to Titan and a surface pressure of 1 bar, ammonia oceans and seas cover its surface.
Ammonia is also the base of the first sort of cryogenic life discovered. Dominant life forms are large moving plant like creatures that are named 'Ymir' by the crew of the SS Fram.
== Hel ==
Hel, named after the Norse plane of the dead, is the outer most planet of the Wolf 359 system and again a icy Neptune like object with a ring system and at least three moons.

There is also the idea of the Fram gaining a ship pet while on Muspellsheimr.

Mainly the ship lands on the surface and this creature manages to get on the ship. Then through an airlock and into the ship without anyone noticing.

Mainly because the creature looks like a large rock.

This curious bugger (about as intelligent as a really dumb dog) runs around a bit with anyone managing to ignore it again and eventually finds itself out of air (it needs higher pressures to actually breathe) and out of food and tried to find either.

Eventually someone does see the creature and realizes that its not a rock and begins to chase it. The creature panics and the chase ends up in engineering, where the creature stumbles over grease that looks and smells exactly like the water it is used to. So it drinks fromm the grease.

Only that this grease contains a good amount of handwavium to work in a vacuum. Cue the creature being biomodded to be able to survive any other environment other then its natural one.

It caught, the Handwavium contamination noticed and the crew decides that putting it back may contaiminate Muspellsheimr with more Handwavium then they are comfortable with. So the rock creature ends up becoming the ships pet rock. And bane for any rat that manages to get into the ship.

Someone also get the bright idea to call it 'Rocky'...

I also have the strange mental image of someone walking this rock on a leash on a station...

I assume some Trekkie heads will be rolling when they notice they missed something during their visit.

I like the concept of the Pet Rock. I like it a lot.

Though, I wonder if the planets weren't missed, simply because Wolf 359 is an unlucky place for Trekkies after all...
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

Personally I think that it was close to the end of the year and the Trekkies that went to Wolf 359 said the following:

"The star is still there, lets head home for the Christmas party."

Either that or they did not have that much scientific payload.

I can imagine somebody saying this, before the fact: "It's a type M red dwarf. If any planets are still there, they'll be useless for colonization. Why bother looking?"
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

And they were right!

I've got a shine to the pet rock idea, but the history-as-written doesn't quite make sense; it'd be dead well before it got anywhere near handwavium. Maybe it's something turtle-sized they picked up and built a special terrarium for?
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

Stranger things happened?

Or maybe it ingested handwavium grease before it managed to get inside the ship and then wrecked some havock?

HAH! It's a Horta!

...suddenly seized by a need to throw Dr. Seuss in this and have "Horta Hears a Who"...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

blackaeronaut Wrote:HAH! It's a Horta!

Which will result in a few Trekkies getting their hide tanned by their superiors. :p

And will definitely result in a whole new spin on the term 'pet rock'.

Bob Schroeck Wrote:...suddenly seized by a need to throw Dr. Seuss in this and have "Horta Hears a Who"...

What, we're mixing Trekkies and Timelords into this?

[size=smaller](Hmmmmm... "Trekkies and Timelords"... somebody call Wizards of the Coast!)[/size]
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Present for the thread!


Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

I guess Wolf 359 is has a go then. :p

The gas giants would have to be captured planets (otherwise they would have been destroyed when the star went nova and turned into a red dwarf), although that isn't outside the realm of possibility.

This actually helps your setup - if the captured planets are in different orbital planes than the double-planet and each other, it would be more difficult for any of them to be detected...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

robkelk Wrote:The gas giants would have to be captured planets (otherwise they would have been destroyed when the star went nova and turned into a red dwarf), although that isn't outside the realm of possibility.

This actually helps your setup - if the captured planets are in different orbital planes than the double-planet and each other, it would be more difficult for any of them to be detected...

Wolf 359 is a flare star... but thats a little bit below a star going nova I think.

So planets should be fine...

Nope, Wolf 359 is a flare star is a star that has flares now and again that are really bright when seen from the outside.

Sol is sort of a flare star as well, and does not make any problems.

Posted to the wiki

robkelk Wrote:The gas giants would have to be captured planets (otherwise they would have been destroyed when the star went nova and turned into a red dwarf), although that isn't outside the realm of possibility.

This actually helps your setup - if the captured planets are in different orbital planes than the double-planet and each other, it would be more difficult for any of them to be detected...

HRogge Wrote:Wolf 359 is a flare star... but thats a little bit below a star going nova I think.

So planets should be fine...

I don't know of any way for a star to be a red dwarf other than having gone nova sometime in its past. That would have destroyed any planets close enough to the star, and blown off the atmospheres of any gas giants farther out. (When a gas giant is nothing but atmosphere, that destroys it as well...)

But it's possible (however unlikely) for a "loose" planet to be captured by a star. It's extremely unlikely for two planets to be captured by a star, but when statistics tell you how small the chance is of something happening, statistics is also telling you that the particular something is possible.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

A red dwarf can come to exist by being very light at birth. There are brown dwarfs after all, who have not ignited a fusion reaction. Red dwarfs are just large enough to have ignited the fusion reaction.
Just take a look at Gliese 581, a red dwarf star that has six planets, some of them perhaps gag giants. They would not exist if Gliese had a Nove event in its history.

Quote:gag giants

They're not real planets, they're just hiding giant spring-loaded snakes.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

robkelk Wrote:I don't know of any way for a star to be a red dwarf other than having gone nova sometime in its past.

Maybe you are mixing this up with a White Dwarf?

maybe...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Wikipedia says that red dwarfs are small (no more than 40% of a solar mass) main-sequence stars.
Ooh, here's an interesting tidbit:

Quote:As red dwarfs are fully convective, helium does not accumulate at the
core and, compared to larger stars such as the Sun, they can burn a
larger proportion of their hydrogen before leaving the main sequence. As a result, red dwarfs have estimated lifespans longer than the estimated age of the universe

Emphasis mine.