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Deepspace photo of Pegasia, an earthlike moon with shallow seas. Click to enlarge. Deepspace photo of Pegasia, an earthlike moon with shallow seas. Click to enlarge.
PEGASIA
by Chris Wayan, 2006-2010

Still under construction! Want to play? Design a species, name a continent!

for Vadim Kaplunovsky: hope I got the orbits right this time.

Map - Geography & climate - Evolution - Critters - Gazetteer - Sketches - More worlds? Planetocopia!

INTRODUCTION

Pegasia isn't an alien planet. It's a mere moon, orbiting a gas giant bigger than Jupiter (and much closer to its sun). Such giants are common--and this week's theory (the turnover's fast) says they're trouble. A hot Jupiter's not born close to the sun but spirals in, slowed by dust, swallowing any Earthlike worlds or flinging them out of the system. It even may have happened here. Look what lies between us and Jupiter! The asteroids, Mars? Mars is rubble! ONE NINTH Earth's mass--just a big rock. Jupiter may have suppressed planet-formation for hundreds of millions of kilometers around it.

So hot Jupiters are trouble--and they're everywhere. Bad news for life! Or is it? Many are bigger than Jupiter. Some of their moons will be oversize too--Martian, even Terran! Big enough for life. Gravity giveth, and gravity taketh away. Pegasia's such a moon, half the mass of Earth.

Pegasia looks Earthlike at first glance. Look again! Dense air, low gravity, jagged terrain, shallow seas, restless tectonics. And the skies! Zeus (its gas giant) looms overhead, causing bloody red eclipses every noon; rusty Tharn (a sister moon like a living Mars) grows and shrinks as it swings by; auroras crackle and shimmer even in the tropics; every 48-hour day, the weather swings like Terran seasons--frosty nights, balmy dawns, afternoon hurricanes!

And one more difference: Pegasia has many intelligent species. What kinds? You tell me. Pegasia is a contest for species-designers! See Creatures and Peoples for guidelines and sample entries, and Evolution for background. But first... just click somewhere on the map you'd like to go.

Map of Pegasia, an Earthlike moon. Click a feature to go there.

PEGASIA: BASICS

Map of Pegasia, an Earthlike moon. Click a feature to go there.
TOUR PEGASIA! Survival tips first, then click on a region (just numbered for now): Continent 1 - 165 Is. - Continent 2 - Continent 3 - Rift-Junction and Curl 9 Is. - 1-4 Is. - Continent 4 - Continent 5 - Curl 5 Is. - Continent 6 - Continent 7 - Continent 8 - 89 Is. - Continent 9

The gazetteer will have a full index of native placenames, with descriptions--once the contests's over and we have natives to name them.



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