a star system with SO MANY habitable planets

[Dermot]

I know that the Star Fox series violates the laws of physics all over the place. :3 But still, it's interesting to theorize sometimes.

In what I've learned from astronomy over the years, it seems relatively rare for a star system to have more than one (or perhaps two) habitable worlds, and most star systems have no habitable worlds at all.  (This is particularly true with the many star systems found where gas giants have drifted so close to their stars - smaller planets in the way are either destroyed or ejected from space.)

So, here we have the Lylat system, with an extremely improbably high number of inhabitable worlds.  I mean, there's Aquas, Corneria, Fichina, Fortuna, Kat(ar)ina, Macbeth, Papetoon, Sauria, Titania, Venom (after a fashion), Zoness...  And so I got myself thinking.  How would a star system get so many hospitable worlds?  I can think of some theories:

(1) Transported planet theory

All or most of the planets are not native to the Lylat system.  Since there are already signs of extremely advanced civilization much older than Corneria's (on Titania), could it be possible that they gathered several planets from other star systems and transported them to the Lylat system via an enormous planet-sized jump gate (it would have to be far more powerful than Beltino's Orbital Gate)?

This concept has been used in the backstory of Star Wars, where the Corellian system has multiple habitable planets originally hyperspaced from other star systems.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corellia#Corellian_System

(2) Terraformed theory

All or most of the planets could have been terraformed (or even climate-altered) in various ways, also perhaps by ancient civilizations.

However, terraformed planets would necessarily have to have introduced life.  Since that life didn't evolve naturally, it might not end up being as ecologically diverse as on a planet that has had life for hundreds of millions of years.  Though as far as I know, I don't think most of the Lylat worlds that have wildlife *have* to be necessarily *diverse* - say, as diverse as the Earth.  Corneria, Sauria and Venom have local intelligent life, but they could have been settled from somewhere else.  Fortuna could have naturally-evolved life, or it could be just one giant Jurassic Park someone made long ago.

If worlds were terraformed, then if that terraforming technology ever went away, a natural consequence is that the planet would gradually revert to its most stable condition.  For example, if you take a planet with fairly low gravity (such as Mars) and terraform it with atmosphere and oceans, eventually all that gas and liquid would leak into space after a few tens of millions of years max.  If a planet has sufficient gravity to keep it all, then it might stay, but the elements may "settle" in a way not intended by the terraformers.  (For example, oceans and atmosphere may absorb elements from the planet's bedrock, changing their chemistry over time.)  Terraforming wouldn't be something you just do and it's done with - it would have to be maintained, at least in a minimal way, over millions of years.

(3) Exceptional Lylat theory

Maybe all the habitable planets of the Lylat system formed naturally around Lylat with abundant naturally-developed life.  This theory requires the fewest explanations, but is also by far the most statistically unlikely scenario, as it meets astronomical odds of perfectly ideal evolution of a star system.

----

And the final brainteaser - if a small planet (the size of the Earth) has no tidally-locked moon of significant size (such as the Earth's Moon), then its spin slows down dramatically (so a day is much longer than a day), and its planetary tilt changes wildly between polar and equatorial (messing with the planet's climate).  Titania seems to have a moon (as seen not only Star Fox 2, but also in the scenery of "Farewell, Beloved Falco"), but what about the other planets?  Or do they simply have moons we don't see?  Or, if they have no moons, how are their planetary physics stabilized?

Let's use our imaginations. :3

[Guest FoXXX]

Possibly a government conspiracy...

[Guest DRL]

Possibly a government conspiracy...

WRONG!

It actually has something to do with UFOs...

No, seriously, if I am to choose, I would prefer a mix

of ideas, preferably from the 3 and 2.

Basically you could think that life could have evolved on Corneria

and some were colonized from there, and as time went

on, species from other star systems colonized the remaining ones

(on which the Cornerians could not adapt to).

Many years later, we came up to the events of something similar

to what Lylat looks like now (in terms of life, I mean).

As for astronomy... Well, it is there that the thing gets... unreal.

I agree with what I explained before, but I can not explain the

weird position of the planets (I mean in SF64, althrough in SF2

it seems quite weird as well). It looks cool.... But I can only think

of one reason for them being here: "Star Fox Development Team".

[Kursed]

well we have to account that Solar could make  many of the planets more habitable.

[Asper Sarnoff]

Theory three I believe is quite a far stretch, even in Lylat. I read about the concept of theory one some time ago, I wouldn't deem it plausible. That leaves the second one, which is somewhat close to what I imagined myself.

[Dermot]

Asper, do you have any specific theories?  Which worlds were settled from outside?  Which worlds were terraformed?  Any theories as to whether any of the terraformations are botched or chemically derelict?  What of Titania?  Corneria?  Fortuna?  Venom? XD

[Asper Sarnoff]

Asper, do you have any specific theories?  Which worlds were settled from outside?  Which worlds were terraformed?  Any theories as to whether any of the terraformations are botched or chemically derelict?  What of Titania?  Corneria?  Fortuna?  Venom? XD

I'll get back to it. Currently on school, in the break of course. And as everyone knows, brain activety is at its lowest when at school. :lol:

[ThePointingMan]

Well, although unlikely, I'm pretty sure that all the planets where naturally formed. When you's making a game things don't have to make statistical sense, so if you ignore statistics, then which of these planet systems would you choose, unless making some major plots tied with it, most would choose the naturally formed one, not only is it simple, but it's the coolest.

[Guest DRL]

I'll get back to it. Currently on school, in the break of course. And as everyone knows, brain activety is at its lowest when at school.

That is just so true that I can not lie about it.  :lol:

[Guest Julius Quasar]

(2) Terraformed theory

All or most of the planets could have been terraformed (or even climate-altered) in various ways, also perhaps by ancient civilizations.

However, terraformed planets would necessarily have to have introduced life.  Since that life didn't evolve naturally, it might not end up being as ecologically diverse as on a planet that has had life for hundreds of millions of years.  Though as far as I know, I don't think most of the Lylat worlds that have wildlife *have* to be necessarily *diverse* - say, as diverse as the Earth.  Corneria, Sauria and Venom have local intelligent life, but they could have been settled from somewhere else.  Fortuna could have naturally-evolved life, or it could be just one giant Jurassic Park someone made long ago.

If worlds were terraformed, then if that terraforming technology ever went away, a natural consequence is that the planet would gradually revert to its most stable condition.  For example, if you take a planet with fairly low gravity (such as Mars) and terraform it with atmosphere and oceans, eventually all that gas and liquid would leak into space after a few tens of millions of years max.  If a planet has sufficient gravity to keep it all, then it might stay, but the elements may "settle" in a way not intended by the terraformers.  (For example, oceans and atmosphere may absorb elements from the planet's bedrock, changing their chemistry over time.)  Terraforming wouldn't be something you just do and it's done with - it would have to be maintained, at least in a minimal way, over millions of years.

"Quaid, start the reactor!"

(or)

"KHAAAAN!"   

(3) Exceptional Lylat theory 

Maybe all the habitable planets of the Lylat system formed naturally around Lylat with abundant naturally-developed life.  This theory requires the fewest explanations, but is also by far the most statistically unlikely scenario, as it meets astronomical odds of perfectly ideal evolution of a star system.

Hmm...Star Wars' Galaxy has an all ice planet, an all oceans planet, an all desert planet, an all paradise planet, and an all forest...moon.

But, yeah, I agree with either theory 2 or 3 of yours, especially 2. 

Good show, Dermot!

[CrypticQuery]

I never put much thought into it, but terraforming would make a lot of sense.  If only one/two planets are habitable, terraforming would leave many new resources, wider spaces, etc.  And for a civilization as advanced as the Lylat System, the more space, the better.  By the way, GREAT idea for a topic Dermot! :D

[Dermot]

Alright, alright.

So, if you have any particular theories about specific planets, let's hear them!  Any and all specific planets.

Corneria.  It may be the center of Lylat civilization, but is it the oldest?  Was it terraformed or not?

Titania.  It has a dead civilization millions of years old.  What does it have to do with the rest of the Lylat system?  Were they ancestors of Cornerian civilization, or a different civilization altogether.  Were they more advanced even than Corneria civilization?

Venom.  The Anglars live in its oceans.  But did they settle there long ago from somewhere else?  And is Venom naturally toxic, or is it a botched terraformation, or a derelict terraformation (the planet poisoned the air and water), or did its climate change from being moved, or what?  And what of the ruins of temples on Venom's lands?

Fortuna and Sauria.  They're full of dinosaur life.  Why?  Are they the same dinosaurs on both worlds?  Did dinosaurs originate on one world and spread to the other?  Is it possible both world's were someone's idea of a Jurassic Park long ago?

Macbeth.  Its interior has shrunken, and the area beneath the crust is hollow.  If you've played through Macbeth in the SNES Star Fox game, you can see how.  (It's still said to be hollow in Star Fox 64, but this is not seen.)  Exactly how is this expected to work?  Is this a natural occurrence, or something engineered?  (It seems that this was not Andross's original doing, but he took advantage of it to store munitions.)  If the surface of Macbeth is essentially a large elevated platform of crust, are enormous cataclysmic sinkholes happening?  If not, then what prevents them?  Furthermore, what makes the hollow interior stable enough (and cool enough) to store or base anything?  Macbeth possibly raises the most questions of any Lylat world.

Papetoon.  Fox was born here.  Possibly the McCloud family is from here as well.  Also, the original Star Fox team lived as exiles here for a time early in the Lylat Wars.  Exactly what is Papetoon in relation to Corneria or the Lylat system?

Sector Y.  I never saw it in Star Fox 64, but in the SNES game, it had resident manta ray-like like, swimming through the openness of space.  (Were these in Star Fox 64 as well?)  This would be interesting to try to explain, biologically.

Solar.  Oh, Solar...  Is this a red dwarf star, a brown dwarf planet, or simply a world covered in exposed magma?  If any of those, please explain how.  And more complicatedly, why and how is there life?

Earth-like life and human-like sentient society.  Apparently, Cornerian civilization has access to at least some worlds outside the Lylat system, elsewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy.  This makes me think - if so many worlds have life that greatly resembles Earth life (past and present), is it possible that Earth was at all involved?  Maybe long ago, and long since forgotten?  And Cornerian technology - is it all their own, or did they acquire some or much of it from other civilizations?

Note that my own understanding of the series is rather limited after Star Fox 64.  I haven't played Adventures, Assault or Command.  But I'd been wondering about many of these things even since the 1990s.

[Star Fox Runner]

The idea of terraforming would most definitely apply to planet Fichina. (Which was actually Fortuna in Star Fox 64, it was just a translation error) In Star Fox Assault, the whole mission was about saving the Climate Control Center, so if it requires a climate control center to remain habitable, some form of terraforming had to have taken place. So Terraforming applies to at least Fichina.

"Quaid, start the reactor!"

(or)

"KHAAAAN!"   

Hmm...Star Wars' Galaxy has an all ice planet, an all oceans planet, an all desert planet, an all paradise planet, and an all forest...moon.

But, yeah, I agree with either theory 2 or 3 of yours, especially 2. 

Good show, Dermot!

LOL! The Genesis experiment in Star Trek, we saw how that ended up in Star Trek 3.

Well, the Star Wars universe having multiple single climate planets doesn't apply here, because they are not all in the same system.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

I missed the 3rd Star Trek.   What happened?

[DZComposer]

I don't mean to rain on your intellectual parade, but I've given up on trying to apply real astrophysics to Star Fox.

I prefer the alternate dimension theory:

Lylat exists within an alternate dimension that is contained within the brain of Shigeru Miyamoto where anything is possible from planets with star-like properties to talking mushrooms to people who keep being reborn into a world that never advances in weapons technology beyond swords and bows, despite the invention of the steam engine.

But then, with weird stuff like multiverse theory, this alternate dimension may actually exist...

[Guest DRL]

I don't mean to rain on your intellectual parade, but I've given up on trying to apply real astrophysics to Star Fox.

I prefer the alternate dimension theory:

Lylat exists within an alternate dimension that is contained within the brain of Shigeru Miyamoto where anything is possible from planets with star-like properties to talking mushrooms to people who keep being reborn into a world that never advances in weapons technology beyond swords and bows, despite the invention of the steam engine.

But then, with weird stuff like multiverse theory, this alternate dimension may actually exist...

Heck, that is the real one!... Just kidding! 

Anyways, it is fun to speculate with it.