Hey guys, I just watched GotG 2 and was enamoured by how cool and unique(?) the ideas were. Like the Quantum Asteroid Field where the asteroids would phase in and out of reality and the different beings (gold bois) and planets. I was trying to think of similarly awesome ideas for my book but alas, my creativity has grinded to a halt. So, I come to you to ask, what are your awesome, creative ideas for special outer space environments? All replies very much appreciated!
Well it isn't fictional, but there is a nebula that is made up of ethanol that could be converted into liquor that would taste like raspberries. Well in the land of fiction, you could in theory have a ship travel through a black hole and come out a white hole in another universe or dimension. Though rolling the cosmic dice, just pray you don't happen to end up in one made of anti-matter, cause well that would be a rather nasty affair for the poor travelers. However, you could play around with the quantum theory that atoms do happen to travel beyond our own space/time and into another, and could quite possibly have things/people replaced at the atomic level (and otherwise), with the other atoms at random. Perhaps a space Bermuda Triangle of sorts if you will. Perhaps spend some time researching different planetary bodies that we have found outside of our solar system, they are pretty strange and unique. And as much as we can kinda figure out about them, we have no understanding of how such environments can possibly occur. Space is an odd place that we are barely able to grasp how if functions, or why/how it cooks up all the stuff in it.
How about a hollow planet. If I remember my physics correctly, such a body would have gravity on the outside but objects within the planet's interior would be weightless (as the shell would attract them equally in all directions, no matter where they were within the planet). There would also be a constant air pressure as this would be caused by the weight of the atmosphere outside the planet. You could have a dumbbell shaped planet, caused when two planets almost collided with each other and became attached.
I wasn't looking for planets really, more areas of space, but the hollow planet idea sounds really cool. Like how we use sea ships to transport goods across the world they would probably just go through the planet! Most wars and travel would also probably take place on the inside instead of in the air/surface. Lots of interesting ideas there.
That's one of the problems of a Dyson Sphere. You need to be able to use the interior surface, but there's nothing to pull you to that surface. Furthermore, atmosphere DOES have mass, so there still is gravity toward the center, which also means the air at the inner surface is quite rarefied versus the air at the center. Also, you probably need a source of light and heat, so a captive dwarf star in the center - oops, more gravity, toward something you really don't want to fall into.
Yes, the atmosphere would have a mass and therefore create gravity but this would be minimal compared to that created by rock. It may be enough to pull any loose objects to the centre, eventually. Aircraft flying through this space would require minimal power even with heavy payloads. Holes in the shell would let in sunlight which would create dramatic lighting effects, if this were a movie. Liquid water would tend to accumulate inside the planet so this would need management. A story with a hollow planet would require a great deal of worldbuilding (excuse the pun).
Yeah a shell world would be pretty cool. I remember listening about the concept, even so far as to make multi-layer shell worlds, similar to the the hollow earth myth in a way. Neat stuff.
How about an area of space with 'layered time' for want of a better term. The crew of the ship detect a vessel in front of them. They wonder that it is and how it comes to be there so they communicate with it. Then they receive communication from another ship behind them and converse with that one also. The two conversations are identical with the ship paying the opposite roles in each. Eventually, they realise they've been talking to themselves in both cases.
An Earth-sized hollow planet wouldn't have too great an atmospheric gradient, but if enough water migrates to the center to form a spherical sea, the air gradient would become much worse. Holes in the crust are probably not a great idea, unless you have enough air to support a stable atmosphere outside the shell to balance the interior pressure. Still probably not enough light to support photosynthetic-based agriculture. If you have a Dyson Sphere, even if only the diameter of Mercury's orbit, the atmospheric gradient would be huge, with pressures at the core greater than the pressures near Jupiter's core. Scale does matter a great deal. It might even compress enough to ignite it's own mini-sun, killing any life forms residing within the sphere.
Some relatively plausible ideas-- An orphaned world, that drifted out of its home system (something knocked it out or orbit, the star went nova and lost enough mass to reduce its gravity) and now just floats through space aimlessly. It would probably be just a frozen ball of rock and ice with even the atmosphere having frozen, but there might be habitable subterranean caves below the surface, heated by geothermal energy. Along with life? Are there valuable resources (or ruins) on the surface? What happens if it drifts into another solar system? The site of a massive and destructive space battle, where the hulks of countless warships remain in orbit around a planet. The prospect of valuable salvage could make this a natural haunt for scavengers or pirates. A tidally locked world (doesn't orbit relative to the star) where one side is frozen and the other overheated. A band of habitable land exists in a ring between the two zones, in which the sun never moves relative to any given spot--you can walk into the sunset or sunrise. A star or gas giant that is being slowly sucked into a black hole or collapsed star, creating a very long trail of gas or plasma. And for a site closer (relatively) to home: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona_Rupes
