Attempt at Atys Cosmology

[thosholm]

Ok, given the development of the Q&A Round IX thread, I think we need a place to discuss the creation of Atys itself. Here's my idea, drawing heavily on Wikipedia:

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Time: 0
BIG BANG

The beginning of the universe. The creation and definition of the valid laws of physics, of time itself. A big frizzle of energy that cools into matter.

Time: 1 s
The first matter, hydrogen nuclei, forms

Time: 3 min.
The universe cools. Nuclear reactions stop. At this point the universe consists of about 75% hydrogen, 25% helium and trace amounts of deuterium, lithium, beryllium, and boron nuclei. Elements heavier than this do not have time to form before nuclear reactions stop.

Time: 379'000 years
The universe has cooled enough that nuclei can capture electrons, creating atoms. The universe begins to transform from a uniform matter distribution to clumps of matter. Formation of proto-stars and proto-galaxies.

Time: 100'000'000 years to 1'000'000'000
The first true stars and galaxies form. Heavier elements begin to form as early massive stars supernova and release enough energy to cross the Iron fusion barrier. The newly created heavy elements spread through the universe, condense/accrete in stellar nebulae/stellar discs around new stars to form planets.

Atys:
From the night sky we know this: We have a solar system with at least one large gas giant. One gas giant appears close to Atys and has a ring around it. The combination of central star and gas giant creates life-favorable conditions in the orbital belt that Atys exists in..

My idea: the Atysian system is a young system formed in a cloud with a lower-than-average amount of heavy metals.
Reasoning: the apparent lack of heavy elements on Atys. Little visible evidence of solid planes in the Atys system.

Into this system strays a asteroid, either silicaceous or metallic.
Reasoning: 1.) Gravity. Why pay for magic when physics does it for free. Atys needs a heavy central mass. 2.) Radiation protection. The universe is awash with radiation, especially near suns. By having some sort of spinning magnetic core a magnetic wave shell will be created that protects the surface from this radiation. Earth's Van Allen Belt as example.

The asteroid is captured by the ringed gas giant as a moonlet and begins to act as a ring shepherd.
Reasoning: Gas giants do that all the time. The large gas giants in the solar system have scores of mini-moons circling them. The ring around the visible gas plant still exists. Shepherding moons maintain such rings by 'massaging' the ring matter with their gravity field, otherwise it would slowly accrete in a single body.

During this shepherding the moon either collides with a comet or begins to accrete water/gases from the ring matter on its surface or both. Liquid surface water and an atmosphere form.
Reasoning: Life needs water. No known lifeform exists without three needed elements: metabolites, heat, water. Remove one of these three elements and life ends.

Through radiation and surface interaction the first simple molecules form. These interact with each other and their environment to form larger molecules. Chemical evolution begins that over a long period of time leads to molecules that are capable of catalysing their own replication. These begin to congregate into simple cells.
Reasoning: This is simply an unknown. A load of theories about the origin of life exist, but none can fully explain it.

The first simple cells evolve. Predator-prey relationships begin to evolve. Sexual reproduction evolves. Somehow on Atys, the evolution of plants is favoured by the given environment over that of insects, mammals and other polycellular species.

My conjecture: Atys is still feeding itself on the ring system around the gas giant. The earliest life may have formed a sort of biofilm around the central rock that over time grew thicker and thicker. This very stationary bio-system favoured the evolution of plants. As Atys catches more and more matter from the gas giant, the world plant that is seen in the Atys Ecology section begins to evolve. The other life forms, Kitins, mammals, Homins etc., begin to evolve more-or-less as parasites on this large world organism.

[sprite]

I hate to do this to you, ya big monkey but...

Its there because if it wasn't, we wouldn't be around to ask why it was there!

[thosholm]

I hate to do this to you, ya big monkey but...

Its there because if it wasn't, we wouldn't be around to ask why it was there!

Hmm, Philosophy from a Fyros? Atys is truly changing.

And I object strenuously to be called a monkey by some devolved Frahar!

[sprite]

And I object strenuously to be called a monkey by some devolved Frahar!

Thats "nekkid frahar" to you!

[thosholm]

by some devolved 'nekkid' frahar then. I still object.

[keoni]

An observation-- which is perhaps related, or perhaps not...

The primary source of illumination on Atys is apparently not a sun. The same celestial body remains motionless in the sky, and is brighter during the Atys day, and dimmer during the Atys night. In my limited knowledge of celestial mechanics, the only way an object would stay motionless relative to the surface of the planet, is if it is in geosynchronous orbit.

[grimjim]

An observation-- which is perhaps related, or perhaps not...

The primary source of illumination on Atys is apparently not a sun. The same celestial body remains motionless in the sky, and is brighter during the Atys day, and dimmer during the Atys night. In my limited knowledge of celestial mechanics, the only way an object would stay motionless relative to the surface of the planet, is if it is in geosynchronous orbit.

Could be a solar reflector.

[thosholm]

Very interesting observations.

Problem with that is: if the light-source is locked in a geo-synchronous orbit, then only the half-sphere of Atys facing towards that light source gets light. As green plants need a certain amount of light to grow, this would lead to a decidedly lop-sided planet.

If it is a reflector, then there would be a primary light source that would shine at least as bright, if not even brighter in the system.

Any suggestions where to put up an observatory on Atys? Some hill or mountain with near unrestricted 360 degree view field. I think I'm going to spend some days and nights just watching the sky to see what bodies rise when (hour in Map) and where (compass heading).

[keoni]

Could be a solar reflector.

Mayhap... but if it were, what light source is it reflecting? Presuming that the planet has some degree of rotation, that should put the actual Atys sun into view part of the time.

Problem with that is: if the light-source is locked in a geo-synchronous orbit, then only the half-sphere of Atys facing towards that light source gets light. As green plants need a certain amount of light to grow, this would lead to a decidedly lop-sided planet.

True, but the known/inhabited land mass on Atys is very small compared to what one would expect for a planet with mass approximate to Earth (given the apparent surface gravity). So, presumably there are vast areas unknown to homins, as yet. If our sun/moon is in fact a geosynchronous sattelite, there may be continents on the Atys globe lit only by starlight, or by bioluminescent creatures such as those in the Prime Roots - or, there could be additional sun/moon sattelites, unseen to us because they are beyond our horizon.

[thosholm]

True, but the known/inhabited land mass on Atys is very small compared to what one would expect for a planet with mass approximate to Earth (given the apparent surface gravity). So, presumably there are vast areas unknown to homins, as yet. If our sun/moon is in fact a geosynchronous sattelite, there may be continents on the Atys globe lit only by starlight, or by bioluminescent creatures such as those in the Prime Roots - or, there could be additional sun/moon sattelites, unseen to us because they are beyond our horizon.

We have been told that we only know about 5%, a twentieth of the surface of Atys. I took a dodecaeder, a twenty-sided die, from my RPG dice bag and imagined the known map on one of its surfaces. Very small indeed.

There is a simple experiment as to whether or not the Atys light source travels: a sun clock. Over the course of an Atys day, check the directions your shadow falls in. If it remains constant, then we have a constant main light source, if it moves, the relative position of the light source to Atys moves.