Inner Sphere Academic World | |
Image from Steve Bowers and The Astronomer | |
Corona in the Current Era. The capital of the planet, Albertgrad, is clearly visible as a bright dot on the night side at the bottom left corner, while the University City locates at the center of the concentration of ocean floating habitats at the terminator, just off the western coast of Quark. Corona's auroras, twin orbital rings, and the famous aurora ring are also visible. |
Corona (Iota Piscium I) Data panel | |
Parent star | Star: Iota Piscium (Lucida) Spectral type: F7V Mass: 2.287E30 kg (1.150 x Sol) Radius: 1,109,642 km (1.595 x Sol) Absolute magnitude: 3.43 Luminosity: 3.555 x Sol (bolometric) Temperature: 6,288 Kelvin Age: 5.2 billion years Distance from Sol: 44.73 ly (epoch J2000) ... See also main article on the Iota Piscium system |
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Planet | Corona: Orbital characteristics (10600): - Semi-major axis: 271,670,000 km (1.816 AU) - Period: 833.5 days (2.282 Julian years) - Eccentricity: 0.017 - Inclination: 1.092° Physical characteristics: - Type: GaianXeric (before 1497 AT) > EuGaian (after terraforming in 1829 onwards) - Mass: 9.960E24 kg - Radius: 7,637.0 km - Density: 5,338 kg/m3 - Gravitational acceleration: 11.397 m/s2 (1.162 g) - Rotation period: 69,774 s (19.38 hr) - Solar day: 69,842 s (19.40 hr) - Albedo: 0.38 (to 1497) > 0.32 (after 1829) - Equilibrium surface temperature: 258 K - Surface temperature: 290 K - Obliquity: 17.3° Atmosphere:: - Surface pressure: 54 kPa (-1497) > 100 kPa (1829-) - Composition: before 1497 AT: 84% N2, 13% CO2, 2% Ar, 1% other After terraformation in 1829-: 77% N2, 21% O2, 1% Ar, 1% other Satellites (10600): 1) Sonata: Type: Selenian, Semi-major axis = 258,734 km, Orbital period = 11.729 days, Eccentricity = 0.032, Inclination = 15.214°, Mass = 1.594E22 kg, Radius = 1,017.6 km, Albedo = 0.15 |
It's not every day I get to trade with a higher power, so when the message came through it took me several seconds to process its authenticity. Sirana and I had met that morning to go over some details in our manuscript. I'd gone virtual to join her in her workscape, the topology of the environment mimicked the symbolic logic of our project. To my senses it was a landscape of floating islands, each contained a factual statement, analysis or proposition. Bridges linked the islands to show relevant associations and allowing the veracity of each one, denoted by altitude, to drag its neighbours up or down correspondingly. I'd once peaked into how Sirana viewed it but lacking the sensory modalities for parsing extra spatial dimensions it just served to make me nauseous.
I'd been hiking through some flying lowlands where a dearth of accurate data was threatening to pull an entire section of the archipelago down into clouds non-significance. My exoself announced the message; an S1 entity known as NineStar claimed to have data relevant to our study. E was offering to release it so long as we donated funds to various other Coronese research tribes. I felt Sirana's mental presence, "Trust metrics are high. NineStar has been authenticated by system Archai and there is a record of an entity with that name travelling in the Third Loop Covenant." My point of view shifted to a cluster of well-connected islands representing our work on the TLC. Our project was an attempted reconstruction and sociological analysis of the so-called "Purple Flowering Renaissance"; a century long period that occurred in the Dwellunese orbital band in the Tag system, Tagant cluster.
Data about this period was sparse, partly due to the insular nature of the cluster but mostly due to the blight of 7112a.t. A failed S3 ascension gave rise to a blight that quickly assimilated everything in the Tag system and went on to devastate the cluster over the next few decades (before finally burning out, coincidentally just before impinging on sephirotic territory). The TLC had featured in our studies as a probable location of the Dwellunese diaspora, but no firm evidence of refugees or travelers had been found. NineStar's message claimed that E had encountered a Dwellun in that region and had acquired some memories encompassing the period.
Feeling like I needed some air I shifted perspective back to the Ril. I'd left my body basking on a slipway, the sun was just setting as the city floated further north with the rest of the Lovelace Flotilla. Dangling my feet into the sea I called up information on the groups NineStar wanted us to pay on eir behalf. There was a dizzying array with a range of public abstracts; the contribution of stringed instruments in high pressure environments to mathematic memes, theological analyses of Pith Guru dominance psychoware, sociocultural implications of rumoured archai femtotechnology, to name but a few. I ran a few programs to spot any pattern but as expected no significant link was found in the groups and no reliable predictions could be discerned if they had an increase in funding. Unsurprising if this all played into some transapient's plan.
Sirana's icon appeared before me, "what do you think?" I contemplated for a moment as the last light of the sun fell beneath the horizon. "Confidence is high, trust metrics are significant. Let's do it."
Except from "Retrospective analysis of the 8381a.t. NineStar Intervention"
Image from The Astronomer | |
Corona before terraformation |
Image from Steve Bowers | |
The Duorkin Complex has grown around the original spacecraft, to include asteroids and rotating habitats |
Image from Steve Bowers | |
The natural aurora of Corona is formed by the magnetic field of this world, which periodically undergoes a reversal of polarity |
Image from The Astronomer and Steve Bowers | |
The space between the orbital rings is capable of displaying an artificial aurora, as well as a range of other displays |
Image from The Astronomer | |
Corona map: Geological features + Settlements |
Image from Steve Bowers and The Astronomer | |
The orbits of the High Cyclers around Corona approach the planet closely, and have periapses lower than the innermost orbital ring |
Image from The Astronomer | |
Flag of Corona Planetary State |