Recent content by scifiwriter888

This is helpful! Thank you!

Hello! I'm looking for some help regarding magnetism and how it might work (or be fictionalized) in regards to a "magic" compass. I have two questions. Please excuse my complete scientific ignorance :) In my story, our young hero has a compass. The compass needle just spins in endless...

Thank you! This is all very helpful. A good reality check!

Hm that sparks some cool ideas. By a thicker atmosphere, do you mean something like fog?

Wow that's an amazing image. Something like that would only be visible with a high powered telescope, right? Is there any feasible way that someone on this distant planet might see a sight like that (a moon crossing in front of another planet) with the naked eye while standing on the surface of...

Hm interesting. The planet moon would still have to be smaller in order to keep that gravity/solid surface, right? If the moon were three times the size of earth, I'd still run into the same problem?

Thanks Scott. What do you mean when you say "of course, you can give it a heavier core and allow lighter oceans on the surface"? Sorry I don't understand this stuff as well as you do!

I'm doing some research for a sci-fi story that I'm writing and hoping that some of you chemists can help me answer a quick question about the material of a hypothetical distant planet. If a distant planet were three times the size of Earth with the same gravitational pull, what would the...

Ah, good point, thanks!

This is all very helpful! Thank you for taking the time to help!

Thanks Buzz! Your answer to the first question brings to mind some really interesting ideas. It also makes me wonder -- and I know you said that this might be hard to imagine -- but what if this planet was made of less dense material? Is there any physical way for less dense material to make up...

I'm hoping that some of you brilliant scientists can help me understand the realities of a world that I'm building for a story in a distant solar system... I’m building a sci-fi world for a story that takes place on a distant planet that is multiple times the size of earth, but hosts similar...