DescentBB

Descent is what's gotten me hooked on astronomy in the first place. After playing it when I was a kid (could have been as early as 1996 or 7 TBH), I got enamored with planets and moons. The Solar System and planetary science, primarily.

So, if Descent 2 was being made today, we would have potential places for 3x as many strictly Solar System levels as there were in the original game, instead of coming up with fictitious systems.

Just 2 days ago (on March 26th), a new detached object similar to Sedna was discovered (you can read about it here: here..

I have already appropriated the most known dwarf planets for levels for the campaign I'm working on (working title Descent 1,5). The final level taking place on Sedna has its layout already completed, now I think I'll make an Eris one - an entirely gray (mid to dark) technological, industrial nightmare, bringing D1 level 26 to mind. That's the initial concept, at least.

So please discuss dwarf planets in this thread

Dwarf Planet sounds like a bad ass bigger version of Dwarf Fortress. Requires 300 processors and 2TB of RAM.

As techniques improve, I think we're going to find a whole lot more of these things. I understand they think that one has rings comprised mostly of water? Interesting.

Duper wrote:As techniques improve, I think we're going to find a whole lot more of these things. I understand they think that one has rings comprised mostly of water? Interesting.

Yeah, I read about it the other day too. Seems like it's not really a dwarf planet, but at the very least a large planetoid. The object needs to be gravitationally rounded to get called a DP. (Hahahaha, what an unfortunate abbreviation... )

EDIT: Actually yeah, it's only around 90km in diameter, so far too small to hope to achieve roundness of shape.

"Dwarf Planets" don't we have to call them "little" planets or something now...

Kidding...I'm not trying to crap on your thread....

LOL..that was cold Spidey. XD

Sedna appears to be pinkish in color too. And they're calling the other dwarf planet, VP-113, "Biden". There's no accounting for taste when naming celestial objects.

http://www.king5.com/news/pink-world-so ... 88201.html

tunnelcat wrote:Sedna appears to be pinkish in color too. And they're calling the other dwarf planet, VP-113, "Biden". There's no accounting for taste when naming celestial objects.

http://www.king5.com/news/pink-world-so ... 88201.html

My Sedna level uses predominantly dark orange and brown, but also pink and has plenty of Martian red - Sedna is supposedly the second reddest body in the Solar System after Mars.

As for "Biden", it's only a provisional name, until they can come up with something official.

It's not clear to me whether it's a pun on VP, or VP is just part of the gag

Xfing wrote:My Sedna level uses predominantly dark orange and brown, but also pink and has plenty of Martian red - Sedna is supposedly the second reddest body in the Solar System after Mars.

As for "Biden", it's only a provisional name, until they can come up with something official.

I wonder what compounds make a frozen ice ball like that appear so reddish colored?

Dissolved iron?

tunnelcat wrote:

Xfing wrote:My Sedna level uses predominantly dark orange and brown, but also pink and has plenty of Martian red - Sedna is supposedly the second reddest body in the Solar System after Mars.

As for "Biden", it's only a provisional name, until they can come up with something official.

I wonder what compounds make a frozen ice ball like that appear so reddish colored?

Tholins, supposedly. Compounds of methane transformed by solar radiation.

And those blueish planets we see are just untransformed methane compounds?

Earth also has a pronounced beautiful blue color

Sure, but you wouldn't want to take a swim on those blue planets in the picture. They're surrounded in methane.

Would be difficult anyway - they don't have a clearly defined surface - just an atmosphere that gets thicker and thicker until it finally goes liquid at pressures of somewhere around 10 MPa. Since that's also around the crush pressure of a typical nuclear submarine, you're not going to be doing much swimming in it

Sirius wrote:Would be difficult anyway - they don't have a clearly defined surface - just an atmosphere that gets thicker and thicker until it finally goes liquid at pressures of somewhere around 10 MPa.

It would be amazing if we could develop probes to study phase transitions in gas giants.

To be honest , I'm not understand what is the sense to spend money on a study of deep space . We all know that in the near our surroundings no planets that may exist terrestrial life forms. Mining asteroids and other planets too dangerous and unprofitable .
I can understand the meaning a new Russian project to develop and colonize the moon. This project is really a lot of pluses. But, despite the fact that Russian cosmonauts say undoubtedly useful potential development of deep space for future generations , but I 'm still skeptical.

sigma wrote:To be honest , I'm not understand what is the sense to spend money on a study of deep space . We all know that in the near our surroundings no planets that may exist terrestrial life forms. Mining asteroids and other planets too dangerous and unprofitable .
I can understand the meaning a new Russian project to develop and colonize the moon. This project is really a lot of pluses. But, despite the fact that Russian cosmonauts say undoubtedly useful potential development of deep space for future generations , but I 'm still skeptical.

Maybe it's in the Russian psyche to stay safe at home, because Europeans and Americans have always had this strong desire to go out and explore. The deep ocean and space are the last frontiers. Doesn't space interest you sigma, enough that you'd want to go out and explore it if you could?

sigma wrote:To be honest , I'm not understand what is the sense to spend money on a study of deep space . We all know that in the near our surroundings no planets that may exist terrestrial life forms. Mining asteroids and other planets too dangerous and unprofitable .
I can understand the meaning a new Russian project to develop and colonize the moon. This project is really a lot of pluses. But, despite the fact that Russian cosmonauts say undoubtedly useful potential development of deep space for future generations , but I 'm still skeptical.

Seriously, bro? Where is your awe and curiosity?

Only by deep space research can we conquer space AND find out about the universe.

Xfing wrote:Seriously, bro? Where is your awe and curiosity?

I agree. It is the strangest thing to see people completely who are completely uninterested in space and science posting on the forum of a space sci-fi game. Buncha weirdos.

Xfing wrote: Seriously, bro? Where is your awe and curiosity?

Only by deep space research can we conquer space AND find out about the universe.

vision wrote:I agree. It is the strangest thing to see people completely who are completely uninterested in space and science posting on the forum of a space sci-fi game. Buncha weirdos.

I admire the courage COMPUTER players who have not even tried to join the project Mars One...

vision wrote:

Sirius wrote:Would be difficult anyway - they don't have a clearly defined surface - just an atmosphere that gets thicker and thicker until it finally goes liquid at pressures of somewhere around 10 MPa.

It would be amazing if we could develop probes to study phase transitions in gas giants.

Yes, let’s burn more hydrocarbons, to learn stuff that has no real value, to anybody other than a labcoat.

We should declare a moratorium on space travel, so as to not exacerbate the catastrophic effects of global climate warming change.

sigma wrote:I admire the courage COMPUTER players who have not even tried to join the project Mars One...

Joining Mars One isn't a sign of courage. It is stupidity. Humans are not ready to colonize Mars and this is essentially a egotistic suicide mission.

Spidey wrote:Yes, let’s burn more hydrocarbons, to learn stuff that has no real value, to anybody other than a labcoat. We should declare a moratorium on space travel, so as to not exacerbate the catastrophic effects of global climate warming change.

I'm not sure I've head a more ignorant statement in the last month, and I know you are smarter than that so I'm going to assume you are joking.

Well yea, half kidding, with a little sarcasm.

You do know a moratorium is only temporary, and can be lifted at any time deemed proper.

vision wrote:

sigma wrote:I admire the courage COMPUTER players who have not even tried to join the project Mars One...

Joining Mars One isn't a sign of courage. It is stupidity. Humans are not ready to colonize Mars and this is essentially a egotistic suicide mission.

Where did they go, these large eggs of these space explorers?

sigma wrote:Where did they go, these large eggs of these space explorers?

There is a difference between doing something risky with a chance to survive and doing something suicidal just to be "the first."

Well, so the names of pioneers inscribed in golden letters in the history.

Although I'm sure that if the organizers have announced a competition to participate in the research project other planets using unmanned droid, most of us will fight each other for the opportunity to operate real unmanned Pyro