@Nightfish Re:
http://www.drektopia.com/NFGalaxy2.htm
First let me say that you've created one heck of a universe construct. Nice work! I may not agree with some of it but still very nice work!
Planets:
1. There would never be a
Black Hole within a solar system. The closest you could possibly get would be a companion star position within a binary or ternary system and the chance of finding any planets is so close to nil that you can forget computing for them. All planetary bodies would have had their orbits altered in a massive way when the star went super nova. The planetary bodies would have either been blown out of the gravitational well of their sun(s) or wound up crashing into each other and their suns. In any case all would be barren rocks.
2. The same for a
Neutrino which is also the remnant of a super nova.
3. A gas giant should take three slots for its orbit. (This is why I recommend having up to 20 planetary slots. These suckers
and I really mean suckers are nothing but BIG hovers!)
4. Gas giants are being found in close proximity to their stars... which implies that they can be anywhere in the system.
5. (edit: My misread... DUH!)
6. Planetary structures... The problem I have with your chart is its too simplistic and will create too many livable/habitable planets. Most of the planets that we'll find will have
TOXIC soup for either their atmosphere or hydrosphere or both. The real chance of finding a planet or moon in the habital zone with the right mixtures of gasses and liquids will probably be discovered to be close to zip, NOT zip but very close.
8. IMO what we, humanity, will be doing is seeking/eking out existences on the planets and moons that closely resemble Mars and our moon. (This is also why I like the HUGE galaxy model... it gives you a chance of finding one or more "truly habitable" type planets for your species.
9. Most planets will also be radiated... We can deal with most of that now... by building underground.
10. Venus is not so much TOXIC as it is a GREENHOUSE run away. The Earth started with pretty much the same mixture of gasses but was located far enough from the sun to cool and allow life to start and flourish. (The first life on Earth actually consumed hydrogen sulfide and expelled oxygen... and in the process was the cause of its own demise.)
Truly TOXIC planets would be anything with corrosive gases, methane, etc for atmosphere... like most of Jupiter's larger moons. This would also include toxic, corrosive mixtures for its hydrosphere.
I really doubt that we'll find a "Star Trek" universe out there, with life and livable planets in every star system.
What I'm saying here is that Earth type planets per given species should be few and far between and you really want to protect them with everything you have!
11. Your concept of a
Gaian is unique to say the least. If a planet was truly sentient it would probably take one look at "humanity" and its propensity for plundering planetary resources and make itself as inhospitable as possible.
12. Radiated planets are those without a magnetic field or are too close to either their star or if they are moons are too close to their planet. The two inner planets in the Jovian system are inundated with hard radiation.
13. Worm Holes... I also like the one way worm hole... but I think you have too many of them... but then that's based on my reading SciFi, esp David Weber's concept, and not on impirical data.
I also think all worm holes would be few and far between... but again no real data soooooo...
14. Mineral richness of any given system... I really think that this is over done! IMO I think we'll find that everything we have in our solar system will be available in other systems in just about the same abundance. The real question is are the minerals easy to gain access to... near the surface or are you going to have to dig holes to China in order to extract specific minerals.?!
15. I really think that the size and color of a star will have more effect on the habitable zone than on mineral richness.
Someone pointed out that Red Giants are really old as compared to say a yellow main sequence star... actually this is very wrong! What we see now are all and I mean ALL third and fourth generation stars. A red giant such as beatlejuice (sp
) are more active than their smaller cousins and burn themselves out faster... MUCH FASTER! The red giants about the size of Mars orbit are in fact the old stars but they too are third and fourth generation.
But what is left out of the equation is that these solar systems have been around the galactic core a few times and have had time to collect all sorts of things when passing thru newly created nebulas created by stars going either nova or super nova.
Thumper