Azytwaznt melds the dark, insane horror of Cthhulhu and the paranoia of Illuminati with the bright, brave, and glorious bravado of the Age of Empire and the Conquest of Science. Part of this is the spread of the Great Powers' colonial empires beyond the bounds of this globe and on throughout our solar system. (Ironically, it was the exploration of other worlds that revealed that the Hollow Earth theory is, in fact, true, and that all true planets are hollow.)
SEE Azy Hollow Worlds.doc for technical background.
All the worlds of the solar system have exotic civilizations, or their ruins, and great potential for adventure.
The Worlds Beyond Earth - as well as Pellucidar in her hollow interior - include aspects similar to the adventures the historian Edgar Rice Burroughs has published. However, his writings must be taken as simile, not accurate guidebook, for he has had to purposefully distort his writing in order to preserve State Secrets and avoid frivolous slander suits. His notes also only cover portions of each world, perhaps a quarter of a hemisphere, and only the outer hemisphere at that. Remember, all the worlds are as hollow as the Earth herself! SEE Pellucidar above (at the end of the Earth secion) for Hollow Earth Theory naotes, which will likewise apply to all the other spheres of our solar system.
The exploration and exploitation of the other worlds has been the salvation of many Native Earth peoples. Around the world, from Chinese Empire to the Native Nations of North America, many native states have retained sovereignty as the quest for empire has gone interplanetary. Why fight over Afghanistan when Luna, Venus, Mars, and the moons of Neptune and Saturn hold riches yet unexplored?
Of Interplanetary Vessels, rocket-and dirigible shuttles and sky-hooks
Steaming Starwards!
Envision webs of mirror, gossamer ghosts to shame any clipper ship's spread of sail, focusing sunlight upon a great steam-kettle to drive the aether-screw propeller. The ship herself is a crystaline crysalis, a flying greenhouse, for she must renew and oxygenate the atmosphere of her crew; only the "cold passage" (or "corpsicles") need not breathe. Rocket ships are faster initially, but haven't the fuel to continuously increase speed to the astronomical hurtling of the space-steamships. Luckily, they can use their solar sails to catch the barest edge of an atmosphere to break their journey's end.
For collecting solar energy, the "sails" of the interplanetary steamships use metallic foil, a super-science crystal foil, or an organic mirror-silk, perhaps kept in repair by vacuum-tolerant spinner-creatures. These focus sunlight through lenses onto boilers. They are basically solar-powered interplanetary steamships. The ships have fan-boat-like screws to propel them through the aether
Flying Greenhouses
True interplanetary vessels do not need to be streamlined, for they do not enter the atmosphere, save perhaps the thinnest outer trace atmosphere for breaking purposes. They do, however, require either extensive greenhouses or artificial mechanisms for the recycling of air; many resemble a crystaline crysalis or flying greenhouses more than they do conventional vessels.
Dirigible Shuttles form Planetside
Movement between interplanetary vessels and the planets they service is by shuttle-ship. This may bee a fuel-guzzling rocket ship, flashing between the planet's surface and near space. Where the planet's gravity is little, a "sky-hook" may descend all the way to the ground, and communication with the port in stable geosyncronized orbit is by elevator. More often where the gravity is in between, an airship or dirigible shuttle may communicate between the surface and a dirigible port at the suspended lower end of the sky-hook, with an elevator communicating with its upper parts.
Wooden Hulls for Space Steamships
Wooden hulls are favored for lightness as well as cost. The strongest of Earthly tropical timber may still be susceptible to friction burn, but a crystallizing glaze takes care of that. Whole forests of more suitable "ship wood" may be found upon other planet. Extremely valuable (so keep 'em rare!), these are a major target of trade and colonial enterprise.
Sky-Hooks
A sky-hook's lower point is the shuttle port. Its neutral "anchor point" is its interplanetary port. At its outer "counterweight" end are an observatory and laboratories and possibly military facilities. On a world with lesser gravity, such as Mars or Luna, such a sky-hook may reach all the way down to the planet's surface, especially if there's a very tall mountain to anchor it to.
Space-cannons are also used. From Earth, few are safe for firing "shuttle-shot," but from globes of lesser gravity they are more practical. From Earth, they may be used to fire up non-fragile cargo which is then caught and carried off by space craft - hopefully not pirates!
Descent may be by glider.
Aeroplanes
Heavier-than-air craft are few, experimental, unreliable, and generally impractical. Dirigibles are the modern sky-ships. They may also be used as a halfway point to space. For the speed-crazed, there are always the explosively dangerous rocket-ships to tinker with.
SEE Technology entries
The Planets
(See Azy Hollow Worlds.doc for general theory) Notably, all the planets and all their "real" moons ( as opposed to captured asteroids) have approximately the same gravity, their size difference being due to age having spun their shells thinner. Larger hollow spheres move differently through the aether, which, before the aether was understood, resulted in the assumption of different gravities.)
Moons Dark and Bright
Only the Bright Moons are listed (at least initially), because these are al our astronomers have been able to see or our mystics detect. Bright Moons are either potential planets which never spun themselves larger because they transfer much of their spin to the planet they orbit, despite having nearly equal gravity. They are smaller due to having smaller hollows inside them. Other Bight Moons are captured asteroids, also known as False Moons.
Dark Moons are ancient colonies or outposts or stations. They are covered in a thick, somewhat rubbery film of organic material. This may be of artificial origin, but it is self-healing and self-sustaining. It functions to absorb all radiation, the full visible spectrum and far beyond, both above and below. The albedo (reflectivity index) of a Dark moon is effectively ZERO. This is why we have not seen them; not even a radio-telescope (should such an alien invention ever be discovered) could detect a Dark Moon.
The purpose of this black wrapping is simply to absorb energy. It is then transferred from the under side, by means such as silver wires or artificial organic nerve-like fibers, to power whatever artifacts the Ancients may have used within.
Icarus
Icarus has only recently been discovered. It is, in fact, not really a planet, or, one should say, planetary system. Or, more exactly, not yet. It is still a cloud of super-heated, super-dense yet gaseous substances, the child of the Sun's last major effulgence. Over the course of the next tens of millions of years, it will spin itself out into a number of spheres, which, as they cool enough to develop solid crusts, will become the newest planet and attendant moons of our solar system. Amazingly, there is evidence that, even at this early stage in its evolution, Icarus may actually be supporting life, abet of a most alien type! This, if it is true, will be yet more evidence supporting the theory that the Sun himself is not without life.
Mercury:
Mercury orbits the sun at a distance of approximately 36 million miles (58 million K); approximately, because only Pluto has a more elliptical orbit. A day 59 times as long as Earth's with a year some 88 Earth-days long and an orbit more elliptical than any planet save Pluto results in the most drastically different day and night climates in the solar system, exacerbated by equally wide ranging seasons.
Mercury is the youngest planet. His inner hollow is so small that, despite having roughly the same mass (and therefore) gravity as any other planet or true moon (as opposed to captured asteroid) in the solar system, he has a diameter of only 3,000 (4,800 K). This has resulted in a movement through the transubstantial fluidic aether so slow that primitive astronomers used to think the smaller size indicated a lesser mass! Some scientists believe young Mercury's shell is still so thick that he has yet to develop his first polar opening.
(While Mercury is the smallest planet, Mars is actually the world with the lowest gravity, a tenth less than that of Earth; Mars may actually be a Lost Moon.)
Mercury is the only planet in the Solar System to lack true moons. He has, however, captured a pair of little asteroids, the "eyes of his night," fondly known as Winken and Blinken.
Native Life
Due to days and nights so drastically different, and each gradually running through a seasonal range greater than any other world, Mercury has developed distinct day and night flora and fauna. Many life forms have alternate day and night generations. Others active only during one period, and sleep or aestivate through the other. As a result, Mercury seems to have two deceptively separate ecosystems!
The days range from near boiling to several hundred degrees, ( SEVERAL HUNDRED DEGREES? IS THIS USEFUL< IN TERMS OF STORYLINES? CAN IT BE MADE MORE "REASONABLE?) while the nights drop down somewhat below freezing - but any snow vaporized at the first touch of dawn, a sudden steam born with a thunderous explosion..
Venus:
"The Morning (or Evening) Star" orbits the Sun at a distance of 67 million miles (107 million K) in a nearly circular orbit; she has no discernable seasons. Her year is some 225 Earth-days, with her native day is - times that of Earth. Earth's nearest sister, besides Luna, Venus and Earth approach within 26 million miles at inferior conjunction. Venus is also the closest to Earth in size, being but slightly smaller in size and slightly faster in spin.
Younger than Earth, life on Venus is likewise at a generally more primitive stage of evolution. There are, however, a number of life-forms, both animal and vegetable, which are not merely similar to those of Earth's fossil past but identical with some of her contemporary inhabitants. One can only conclude that some ancient civilization, from one of the older, outer planets, carried on a traffic between the worlds aeons past.
The Venusian climate can be divided into five zones . The two small polar zones approximate the warm temperate zones of Earth, while the majority of the planet swelters in a pair of broad steam-bath-like tropical zones, which in turn flank an equatorial furnace zone considered uninhabitable, wherein the highly adapted native life forms are as alien as if from another star.
Luna:
Earth's sister planet hangs some 240,000 miles (385000 K) away. Luna's diameter of 2,160 miles (3,476 K) is a bit more that ¼ Earths. Mountains of over 25,000 foot hight and craters of volcanic or meteoric origin miles in diameter are evidenced faintly through her seas as well as upon her uplands.
Earth also has three "false" moons, minor asteroids so small that they are invisible when backlit and barely cause a star to twinkle when they pass in fromnt. They are really just captured, overgrown meteors.
Luna is technically not a moon at all, but rather is Earth's sister planet. If Luna were a true moon, she would be only a fraction the size of the planet she orbits. Instead, the two sisters orbit a common Trojan point between them, about 3,000 miles (4,800 K) above Earth's surface. Naturally, Luna's gravity is almost identical to Earth's. (No known planet, as opposed to captured asteroid, has a gravity of over double Earths, or less than half of Earth's, despite any external size difference; the thickness of the hollow spheres' crusts is much more significant.) Luna's smaller size is due to her not having expanded so much over the eons, perhaps because she keeps one face constantly turned towards her larger sister, Earth, and so does not experience the same tidal gravitational shifts as does Earth's turning surface.
Lunar Atmosphere
Despite the lack of any gaseous haze about her, Luna actually has a perfectly breathable atmosphere. It is pent within a planet-wide tenting rather like films of internally fluid (as so "self-healing") silk. As our coral colonies have built up the seafloor here on Earth, so have the various Lunar spinners webbed together the tops of the "stone-trees." The chimney-like "stone-trees" are coral-like formations that form a world-spanning forest. They even grow up through the scattered lakes and shallow seas, the darkness of which we here on Earth can make out hazily through the covering of silvery silk that cocoons our "little sister" twin planet. Two sky-hooks reach all the way down from orbit to kiss Luna's surface. We do not see them because, for stability, they are aligned with Earth's gravitational pull; one is pointed directly towards earth, so we see it head on and thus not at all, save as a fine shadow, while the other, its opposite, stands directly out from the far side of our moon.
Volcanoes
In Luna's most ancient past, she was far more similar to Earth than she is today. Then, eons ago, the Ancients learned how to harness the inner energies of her crustal stresses. These are the forces that heat a world's mineral masses to magma under the lips of its plates and below its heaviest mountain massifs. A glorious era ensued, the highest peak any Lunar civilization has ever attained before or since, made possible by the seemingly infinitely abundant energies made available by a Science Earthly civilizations have never equaled.
But in time this era of peace and prosperity skated close to war. And, faced with war, the Lunar scientists turned their energies to the design of engines of destruction. And then the generals used them. Ejecta from volcanoes a mile and more in diameter spewed into space.
Enough hurtled to its target, Earth, to wipe out the Saurian civilization. So too was extinguished the rest of their dinosaur eon. But, as is want to happen, the inhumanly devastating weapons unleashed by Science were, once released, not so easily brought back to heel.
As the volcanic convulsions broke out of control, or the illusion of control, Luna herself bore the brunt of their bombardment. So much of what was hurled up fell back to her! The molten ejecta of mile-wide volcanoes splashed impact craters many more miles in diameter. Hardly a scrap of Luna's once-verdant surface was left unblemished by that bombastic cannonade. Some speculate that Luna was once slightly more massive than Earth, but lost so much ejecta that she was reduced to her current size. Luna was made Inferno.
At last, Science did find a way to quiet the volcanoes. Luna's inner fires now rest, simmering quietly abet not easily, subdues by the vibrations of a network of tuned crystals. In time, her ecosystem recovered, and has even re-woven her atmosphere-containing cocoon.
(Adventure Hook: Our Heroes, in ignorance, upset the network of tuned crystals. (Some arch villein made pawns of them!) Now Luna's long-suppressed fires are released! First one, then another of the giant volcanoes pops its incendiary cork! A ten-mile wide magma missile hurtles towards Earth - and plunge in, boring, by virtue of its great heat, right through a thin spot, ripping a new Opening from the Earth's outer skin through to her Inner World of Pellucidar! If Our Heroes haven't discovered Pellucidar yet, the new Opening is in the obscure heart of Africa or the Amazon, or some such local, and Earth's own magma rushes to heal the wound. Almost. But stuff leaks through! Reports of weird animals coming from the area of odd weather in the area of the impact - and for some reason the Russians are acting strangely nervous.(They're afraid someone will break the monopoly of their secret discovery and exploitation of Pellucidar.))
Trojan Points: The Trojan Points, where the influence of Earth and Luna are equal, have been colonized. Note that even something the size of a flying city would not be visible from Earth until strong telescopes were invented.
1. At the gravitational center of the Earth-Luna system, some 3,000 miles (4,800 K) from Earth's surface, is the most stale of the Trojan points. Here, there is an actual city hung in space, an ethereal web of some alien substance (a blue-black spun "metal-not-metal" supporting clear panels to let sunlight into the vast gardens which supply enough air for not only the city but also for all the spacecraft it services. (Sealed in by the same gauze-spinners as have cocooned the moon; are there creatures even native to our solar system, or did these First Ancients import 'em?) This city is now sovereign in its own right and neutral. The city is actually not of our making; it was build by some ancient race, unimaginable eons past. There is archaeological reason to believe that its last inhabitants were not its builders but rather were, as we, its inheritors. We have resealed its sections, but have not actually explored the whole place. Some parts are said to be haunted. It is truly vast. The alien material it is made of is nearly impossible of us to cut, so we can only access areas we have figured out how to open. (Our predecessors did cut and remodel a large portion of the place; obviously, even their relatively low technology far exceeded our own.)
2. 2. Sixty degrees ahead on Earth's orbit, forming a an equilateral triangle with Earth and the sun, is the second Trojan point. Here is a cluster of little habitats, quite varied. Some are independent, owner occupied, some belong to various Earth businesses, and some are owned by various governments. These are not all wholesome in their conduct. Some are unsavory indeed. Highly independent "Utopists" trying to form ideal societies in tiny self-contained worldlettles, or secret laboratories, or pirate havens, a casino, shipyards, a squalid market,…
3. 3. Following Earth, 60 degrees behind, and forming an equilateral triangle with Earth and the Sun, is the second Trojan point. This is a ancient dumping grounds. Or perhaps it is the remains of the clash of two vast interplanetary - or even interstellar - fleets. In all likelihood, it is probably both. In any case, the carcasses of alien ships and assorted other garbage swirl in slow motion in a deadly dance. Weird radiations make approaching the area deadly; even robotic mind are too delicate to withstand the radiations, which, luckily, do not sustain themselves far from this "Sargasso sea of space." (Plot tie-ins for Our Heroes: Someone is kidnapping folk and making 'em do salvage work as slaves soon killed by the radiation. Eventually, Our Heroes may discover a safe method of exploring - and mining? - the Sargasso Sea of Space.)
Mars:
Mars, or, as many of the Natives of his surface call him, Barsoom, is some 141 million miles from the sun. and every 15 to17 years approaches 35 million miles (101 K) from Earth. Its year of 687 Earth-days is nearly twice as long as Earth's while the Martian day is only 37 minute longer than Earth's; many an Earth clock would ned but a slight adjustment to serve as well on mars.. The Red Planet's diameter of 4,200 miles (6,800 K) is just over half that of Earth.
Of Mars' two moons, Phobos, with a 7 mile (11 K) diameter, is the larger, and, orbiting more slowly than her red warlord rotates, rises in the west and sets in the east! Her little sister, Deimos, is only 4 miles across (6 K) Obviously, neither is a real, hollow moon with standard-range gravity; both are captured asteroids- IF THEY"RE NATURAL STALITES AT ALL!
Mars
Mars is sometimes called "the Dwarf Planet." This is because Mars has the lowest gravetyu of any planet, fully ten percent lower than Earth's. This is the reason that Mars, despite its position in the order of planets, is smaller than Earth, when, as we know, planets grow in size as they move gradually away from the Sun, only decreasing if they get past the dangerously bloated stage represented by Jupiter - and, unsuccessful, by the Shards of the Lost Worlds which comprise the Asteroid Belt. Mars may in fact be a relic moon or twin of such a Lost World, hurled, by chance, inward a bit, just as Pluto, if of similar origin, was hurled far, far out. Equally likely, Mars may once have been a third companion to Earth and Luna!
Barsoom: Borough's Barsoom may be taken as a somewhat inaccurate description of half of one hemisphere; this still leaves ¾ of the outer planet to be described - not to mention the hollow interior of Inner Mars, or the vast caverns created by the slow, downward settling of her once-great seas!
The more translucent atmosphere of Mar lets through more sunlight than does Earth's relative steam-bath. One result is somewhat greater extremes of the conditions of day and night.
Not all Mars is desiccated. True, his temperate regions, once lush with ruddy forests and plush with plains of the thick crimson moss which served him as grass does Earth, are now gritty desert, cities abandoned and seas parched. But the bottoms of his once-vast oceans do harbor some moisture below them. Sponge-like growths vie with cauliflower-corals for the name "tree," and the ground is not barren sand but a fluttering carpet of lichen.
The surface Canals of Mars were of two types. The broader were wide transport canals, built for barge traffic during his more pleasant eons. A secondary system was developed later, after the first. The high civilization of Mars had learned the sciences of weather control. Rain fell out of favor with the increasingly urbanized and luxurious people. "Let our machines build irrigation canals for us, that our fields may be watered without the inconvenience of rain!" And so it was. Later, they found themselves unable to turn the rain back on. As they made Rain a thing of legend, then thought it myth, they dug a new series of canals, this time underground, so reduce evaporation. Their crops, too, began to evolve in a subterranean direction, their root systems growing semi-hydroponicly in artificial underground channels and lakes, lining or choking them like mangrove roots. Only the light-gathering tops of the plants remained above ground. Next, the high civilization of Mars abandoned its surface cities for a new, troglodyte existence. And, as the water table trickled lower and lower, so did they.
The greatest contemporary civilizations of Mars are not ON mars, nor IN his hollow interior, but WITHIN the depths of his crust. There, they continue, by the shores of the Stygian, ever-dark seas. For millennia, they have been building a subterranean canal system to dwarf the ruins of the surface canals. These canals carry water traffic from one dark sea to another, and Super Science let's 'em overcome the bother of gravity and elevation. (They use electro-magnetic coils around sloping tunnel canals, so the water stays slow, ignoring the slope, even flowing up the slope under electrical influence.)
(Adventure Hook: Our Heroes find a way to turn the "mythical" Rain back on! What glory! Barsoom will bloom again! Oops, now they've got to save the modern surface cities, built in the ancient seabeds, before they become more flooded than Venice!)
Mars has, in fact, not lost its water at all. The Last Martian Ocean is the final resting place of this now heavily mineral-laden water, lying in a sphere at the level of neutral gravity, equidistant from both the outer surface of the Red Planet and the surface of the world of his hollow interior. This leads to the obvious question; do Earth and the other planets also have such vast underground caverns and seas? And, if so, are they equally inhabited? Mars' more advanced civilizations long ago abandoned the surface world for the supposed superior and more logical domains of the depths; only back-sliding primitives remain on the surface - plus the occasional outcast from the depths.
Mars has a low enough gravity, and its highest mountains are tall enough, for a sky-hook reaching all the way down to the surface. Dirigible docks are part way up; interplanetary vessels dock at the neutral "anchor," and a laboratory/observatory is at the outer tip of the sky-hook's "counterweight."
The Asteroid Belt, or, "The Shards"
Once upon a time, there were many more planetary systems than there are now. Many more. The central members of our family of planets were simply too closely packed. As conducive as their close proximity was for encouraging space travel, and the creation of the highest interplanetary civilization our Solar System has ever known, the nearness held latent danger.
As we have seen, the inner, or "terrestrial," planets of our system grow in size as they migrate further from the Sun. (Mars, the apparent exception, is, in fact, a bit of a dwarf, with the lowest gravity of any true planet in our system.) The next surviving planet, Jupiter, is an incredibly bloated giant. This is in itself our clue. Jupiter's crust must be stretched dangerously this.
Over the course of a few billion years, one of the planets, undergoing its greatest expansion, may simply have been over stretched, and whirled itself to pieces. The continental Shards of this planet, as well as its moons, tore across the Heavens. Such impacts may have marked out the beds of oceans on just-forming Earth. They surely caused the shattering of its likewise over-stretched neighbor-worlds. The whole fleet was lost. There is not even a need to, as many of the more dramatic thorie\sts have speculated, call for a collision of intact planetary systems, only the faiure of one in a tightly packed swarm.
The impact was so forceful that some of the great shells crumpled in on themselves, whole planets or moons reduced to shard with super-dense cores only a hundred or a thousand miles in length, yet retaining a full planet's gravity. These Shards of the shattered spheres hurled out, ricocheting into other systems. Eventually, the Shards all coalesced into what we now call the Asteroid Belt.
In addition to the major Shards, the Asteroid Belt is dense as a meteor swarm with lesser debris, bits of the Shattered Worlds which, during the collisions, flew off, uncondensed. The Shards have, over time, been resurfaced with a thick layer of this more common material as they orbit through the hail or space debris.
The planetary systems we see today are but a pitiful few compared to the vast fleet of worlds our solar system once boasted. (Adventure Hook: Some say the disaster was the result of overreaching Super Science of an ancient civilization, now so very lost.)
Even those Shards with the highest gravities have failed to retain any but a trace of atmosphere. Yet life, however distorted its forms, continues, even here. There is also evidence that later civilization have made use of the shards.
The Jovian Planets
The "Giant Planets" found beyond the Shards of the asteroid Belt are uniformly bloated, from Jupiter's diameter 11 times that of Earth, decreasing sharply but regularly (especially if one takes orbital distance into account) to Neptune's diameter, not even four times Earth's. Obviously, the planets, having whirled themselves to monstrously boated proportions, begin to reduce in size, compacting back down.
Jupiter
Jupiter was formerly referred to as the fifth planet. If we count half-formed Icarus and the shattered Asteroid Belt, it is really the seventh.
Jupiter orbits the Sun at a distance of some 483 million miles (773 K). Its year is 11.9 times that of Earth. With a diameter of some 88,700 miles (142.000 K), or 11 times that of Earth, Jupiter is indeed the king of planets.
Gravity: If the planets were solid, Jupiter would have a mass some two and a half times all the other planets combined, or some 318 times that of the Earth, with a gravity to match. Naturally, Jupiter's gravity is only somewhat greater than Earth's. It is only the great perturbation through the aether gives the impression of a greater gravity, as is the case with all the "giant worlds."
Moons of Jupiter include the four "Medician Stars," Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto discovered by Galileo. With a diameter of over 3,000 miles, (4,800 K), Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, and is even larger than Mercury. Of the other moons, one ("Moon V," or EE Bernard), with a diameter of 100 miles (160 K) is closer to the planet's surface, while all the rest of the twelve moons are further. The farthest four (moons VIII, IX, XI, and XII), are in retrograde, or backwards, orbits, and are likely "captured" asteroids.
Jupirer's famous Great Red Spot, located on its upper Southern hemisphere, is some 30,000 miles (48,000 K) long by 10,000 (16,000 K) miles wide. It is actually a floating island larger than most planets.
Saturn
With an orbital radius of 886 million miles (2.4 billion K), yellow Saturn is almost twice as far from the Sun as is Jupiter. His years are 29 ½ times as long as Earth's.
Saturn's two broad rings are divided by Cassini's Rift. Inwards lies a third, dimmer ring, the "crepe ring." These are all that remain of three moons, once lords of the heavens, now dust. The Crepe ring's inner surface is some 8,800 miles (14,100 K) from the planet's surface, while the furthest edge is 47,000 miles (75,000 K) away. In thickness, the rings are ((were thought to be under ten miles, now but inches thick).
Beyond the rings circle many moons. Astronomers have long known of the ten "bright moons," the largest of which, Titian, has a diameter of 2,980 miles (4770 K). The lesser "bright moons" range from 800 miles (1,300 K) down to 100 miles (160 K0. The outermost, Phoebe, has a retrograde (ie, "backwards") motion. This is because she is not a normal, hollow moon but a captured asteroid body. Solid, Phoebe has a surprisingly high gravity.
The planet's equatorial diameter is some 75,000 miles (120,000 K), but, as it is 10% flatter than a true sphere, its volume does not excess that of Earth by much more than 7000 time over. Saturn's mass was calculated to be some 95 time that of Earth, but, as we know, the shell has thinned as centrifugal force has expanded it, until it has reached its current size while having a mass little more than twice that of Earth. As this mass is spread out over such a larger volume, the resulting gravity is hardly greater than that of Earth.
Uranus
Green-clouded Uranus circles the sun at a distance of 1.78 billion miles. Its 29,200 mile (46.700 K) diameter is about four times that of Earth. The Uranian day is but 10 hour and 48 minutes long, as measured by Earthly chronometers, while its year is 84 times as long as Earth's.
Tatiana is the largest of five moons, with a diameter of 600 miles (970 K), about a quarter the size of Luna. The least moon is but 200 miles (320 K) in diameter.
Uranus
Green-clouded Uranus is made so by a thick fog of aereoplankton, a mix of buoyant aereo-plankton and the incredible sky-born ecosystem which is based upon it. Vast behemoths, self-propelled islands in the sky, may be as graceful as titanic manta rays, or as insentient as hundred-mile long solid clouds, Portuguese man-o'-war-like colonial masses.
This thick blanket of cloud keeps the surface far warmer than astronomers have supposed.
Neptune
Neptune circles the sun at a distance of 2.8 billion miles (4.5 K). With a diameter of 27,700 miles (44,300), he is nearly four times as large as Earth. The day of Neptune is (VERY ROUGHLY GUESSED AS BEING) 16 Earth-hours, while its year is - Earth days long.
Triton, the larger of the Sea God's Plant's companions, has a diameter of 2,300 miles (3,700 K), while the slighter companion, Nereid, is but 200 miles (320 K) in diameter.
Pluto
Pluto's orbit is quite elliptical, occasionally bringing him within Neptune's orbit. Usually, however, the Dark God's world nearer his mean distance of 3.66 billion miles (5.89 billion K) from the sun. (Due to an inclination of orbit, Pluto never approaches Neptune closer than 238 million miles (383 million K)) His diameter is but 3,600 miles (5,800 K), so he was clearly not originally a planet but a moon, probably or Neptune's, which has come loose from its parent planet. Pluto's day is 6.39 Earth days, while his year is __ Earth days.
Pluto is far smaller than his nearest (known) neighbor, Neptune, that many think Pluto not a proper planet, once perhaps as large as prideful Jupiter, now shrunk back nearly as small as Mercury, the infant of the planets. Rather, these folk believe that Pluto is instead a lost moon. A moon, mind you, not of neighboring Neptune, but rather a last remnant of the Lost Worlds whose condensed Shards form the Asteroid Belt. If so, the God of War's interior may hold some last traces of the long-vanished ultimate peak of Solar interplanetary civilization. Pluto is so distant from the sun, his otter surface is thought sure to be quite cold. What contrast might his interior pose!
Beyond Pluto
These are the world Mankind's telescopes have discovered. What more lie further out?
The Oort Cloud
At a distance of - miles (-- K) from the Sun, so far the Solar Father of our home system seems but only marginally brighter than the other stars, sets the system-encompassing Oort Cloud. Some scientists speculate that this is a shell of comets whose orbits, like a cage of invisible wire, marks our system's outer limits.. The significance of this cage is more than poetic, for it is the Oort cloud which marks, if not creates, that effect which, seemingly universal when viewed from within, limits our space craft to sub-luminal speed. Beyond this demarcation of the limit of the Sol's influence, far greater speeds are attained by the unknown science of alien races.