|
What am I looking at? Strange circular canyons near Polaris
|
|
| CosmicDwarf | Date: Friday, 06.07.2012, 18:43 | Message # 1 |
 Observer
Group: Newbies
United Kingdom
Messages: 5
Status: Offline
| Good evening. I was just exploring the Polaris system and found myself on a calid desert world surrounded by 13 moons.
These are the details of the planet:
I am currently playing on the old version.
Upon entering the atmosphere, I was greeted by these bizarre canyon-like formations:
These seem to be located in specific regions of the planet. Eventually, if you keep going in one direction you will find that the strange canyons become very mountainous, eventually breaking into mountainous highlands.
These obviously stretch on for quite a while.
However, if you keep going still, you'll come across the canyon formations again.
Further away, you will encounter smooth, sandy desert.
For the life of me though, I cannot fathom what these bizarre canyon things are. Would anyone be able to tell me? What caused these? Was there once water on this planet? A friend of mine suggested that they could have been made by a liquid with a lower freezing point than water.
Many thanks,
Cosmic Dwarf.
Edited by CosmicDwarf - Friday, 06.07.2012, 18:44 |
| |
| |
| Talisman | Date: Friday, 06.07.2012, 20:11 | Message # 2 |
 Pioneer
Group: Users
United States
Messages: 409
Status: Offline
| Great first post and welcome to the forum Cosmic Dwarf. Your friend seems to have a logical explanation, the canyon features look so smooth that it would have to be created by some sort of liquid at some point, perhaps even extreme wind currents even. 
EDIT: This post should perhaps be posted in the Space Journeys section, as we don't really know if there is a desert near polaris with these features on it.
Edited by Talisman - Friday, 06.07.2012, 20:13 |
| |
| |
| CosmicDwarf | Date: Friday, 06.07.2012, 21:33 | Message # 3 |
|
Observer
Group: Newbies
United Kingdom
Messages: 5
Status: Offline
| Oh, I see, I'm terribly sorry. Is there any way I can move the thread?
Edited by CosmicDwarf - Friday, 06.07.2012, 21:34 |
| |
| |
| Talisman | Date: Friday, 06.07.2012, 21:52 | Message # 4 |
|
Pioneer
Group: Users
United States
Messages: 409
Status: Offline
| Don't worry about it. Harbinger or one of the other mods will easily move it later.
|
| |
| |
| CosmicDwarf | Date: Saturday, 07.07.2012, 15:30 | Message # 5 |
|
Observer
Group: Newbies
United Kingdom
Messages: 5
Status: Offline
| One suggestion was that the liquid could have been alcohol, or possibly something like nitrogen. What kind of liquid would you chaps suggest?
|
| |
| |
| apenpaap | Date: Saturday, 07.07.2012, 16:28 | Message # 6 |
 World Builder
Group: Users
Antarctica
Messages: 1063
Status: Offline
| A planet with rivers made of alcohol? Sounds like something the Magratheans get a lot of orders for. XD Anyway, my own guess would be that it wasn't a liquid, but simply the air currents: look at that pressure; even a slow wind would be very powerful there, and a steady gale could probably make such canyons over the centuries.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
|
| |
| |
| lightglider | Date: Sunday, 08.07.2012, 00:45 | Message # 7 |
|
Observer
Group: Newbies
Romania
Messages: 2
Status: Offline
| hi. i'm from bacau, romania. here it's 2:43 am. maybe it's something to laugh at, i'm not sure, but i couldn't find any other place to post this. i observed polaris with nothing else that my vision and noticed it blink faster than usual and also with a red spark. moreover it moved a little bit several times... is this normal, can anyone tell me what i've seen ? this is very serious, it is not a joke. thanks
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Sunday, 08.07.2012, 01:07 | Message # 8 |
 Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Hello lightglider, and welcome to the forum! I assume you are talking about seeing Polaris in the real sky. Yes, this is pretty normal I think, if the atmosphere is more disturbed than usual (it is summer) then the stars may twinkle/blink/flicker more strongly and even seem to sparkle with different colors, especially the brighter stars. I have personally seen this happen with Sirius many times (it can seem to twinkle with red white and blue, which is patriotic if you're American/British/Russian/Dutch/French/Cuban/Chilean/etc.  ). This is especially the case for stars closer to the horizon, but Polaris is not very close to the horizon from where you live. As far as it moving goes, I have also seen stars seem to move, but this is an illusion, not real motion. It could also seem to move very slightly if it is flickering very strongly I suppose. So yes, these things are normal, but still very nice to look at!
(by the way, since you are from Romania, are you familiar with ARCA? They are doing exciting work)
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
|
| |
| |
| lightglider | Date: Sunday, 08.07.2012, 01:15 | Message # 9 |
|
Observer
Group: Newbies
Romania
Messages: 2
Status: Offline
| hi HarbingerDawn, thanks for answering so quickly to my post. I'm actually a web&graphics designer and I'm quite new to this. I will look more into space related issues as it started to interest me lately. I was familiar only with the ARCA logo as I know it received an international design prize. I downloaded the application from the website and I will install it tomorrow, actually today when I wake up... it's 3:14 here in the morning and maybe I will try to get some sleep. Noticed your nickname, r u familiar with Mike Oldfield's album - Music of the spheres? it has a song called Harbinger ...
BR
|
| |
| |
| HarbingerDawn | Date: Sunday, 08.07.2012, 02:07 | Message # 10 |
|
Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Quote (lightglider) r u familiar with Mike Oldfield's album - Music of the spheres?
I had not heard of it, but I'll look into it. I came up with this name on my own in 2005 and I've been using it for every screen name ever since.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
|
| |
| |
ENG
New site
United Kingdom 
United States 
Antarctica 
Romania 