Sol System

From FEInfobase

Sol is a G2 class star located in Sector 001, the heart of the Federation. It contains most of the mass in the system (99.8%) at 1.989*10^30 kg and it has a diameter of 1,390,000 km. It is approximately 4.5 billion years old and will continue to burn for several billion more. When the Sol star becomes a red giant, it will expand almost out to Earth's orbit, causing the M-class planet to be vaporised by the larger body.

Contents 1 Planets 1.1 Mercury 1.2 Venus 1.3 Earth 1.4 The Debris field 1.5 Mars 1.6 The Asteroid Belt 1.7 Jupiter 1.8 Saturn 1.9 Uranus 1.10 Neptune 2 Small Debris Field 2.1 Pluto

Planets

Mercury

Mercury was named by the Romans after the messenger of the Gods due to its apparent speed across the evening sky. It is approximately 40% smaller than Earth in diameter. It has virtually no atmosphere and a crater-ridden dusty surface. A typical Mercury day is the equivelant of 176 Earth days. Its magnetic pull is 1% the strength of Earth's.

Venus

Named after the Roman Goddess of love and beauty, Venus was once known on earth as the morning star and evening star, as well as "the jewel of the sky." Venus is often referred to as Earth's sister planet, being similar in size, mass, density and age. Despite these similarities, Venus is notably different to the third planet, with an atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide and virtually no water vapour. Its clouds are composed of sulphuric acid droplets and the surface air pressure is 92 times that of the Earth. the average surface temperature of Venus is 482 degrees celsius, making it hotter than Mercury, due largely to the greenhouse effect - the planet's atmosphere trapping heat from the Sun. Venus has hundreds of thousands of Volcanoes, with 85% of the planet's surface covered by volcanic rock. Venusians days are 243 Earth days long, and are longer than the planet's years which are only 225 days long.

Earth

The only natural M-class planet in the Sol System; the once beautiful jewel in the Federation's crown is anything but, nowadays. Overcrowded and rapidly becoming polluted, Earth is in a dire straight. Her oceans are now mostly polluted and are filled with huge colonies of various water dweling species that sought refuge during the War. Her continents are battle scared, covered with large craters and crowded to the point where no further beings are allowed to settle there. Her skys are now grey and lifeless, and are filled with numerous space stations, many in bad states of repair. Countless starships sit motionless in high orbit unable to leave the Sol system. Earth is running out of room and resources.

Earth orbits the Sol star at a distance of roughly 93.2 million miles.

Main article located at Earth

The Debris field

A massive area of space debris made up mostly of Borg vessels and some Dominion and Federation ships and large chunks of asteroids and subspace disruptions between the orbits of Mars and Earth. The most hazerdous place in the sol system three paths were cleared thru the debris fields and forcefields placed along the paths to prevent debris drift.These paths are the only authorized enter and exit points in the sol system.Any ship not entering or exiting the system through these points is considered hostile and is immediatly fired upon. Rumored to still contain living Borg. A series of ships and defence satellites and small stations watch the field for any sign of trouble. As of yet none has occured.

Main article located at The Field

Mars

Sharing its name with the Roman God of War, Mars is the most famous and heavily populated of the Sol system's "non habitable" planets. The Martian terraforming project was partially completed before the start of the Borg War and is currently underway again. Mars is home to Utopia Planitia shipyards which are currently in a state of rebuilding. The defence and research base Zephyria and several SFC flight squadrons are located in the Martian desert. Mars is also the home of the mars defense patrol consisting of two dozen cruiser class starships. Mars is also the setting for the first re-signing of the new Federation Charter set for 2410.

Main article located at Mars

The Asteroid Belt

Often forgotten in diagrams of the system, the asteroid belt serves as a divider between the smaller habitible planets of Earth and Mars and the Gas Giants on the outer reaches of the system. Though it stretches around the Sun in a wide orbit, the total mass of the asteroid field is less than half that of Luna, Earth's moon. The belt has been seeded with cloaked mines in the last five years. the only paths through the field safely are known only by the tenders that serve to guide ships safely through the asteroids.

Jupiter

The largest planet in the Sol System is Jupiter, with a radius of 71,492 km. Unknown to most visitors to the system, Jupiter has a planetary ring, composed of an inner halo, a main ring and a Gossamer ring composed of two rings embedded within each other. The planet also has twenty-eight moons.

Starfleet is currently in the process of rebuilding the Jupiter-class station previously in orbit of the giant body, following the success of the Briar Patch station based upon the general design brief however built largely from reclaimed starship and space station parts. When completed, the new Jupiter Station will house a medium sized starship repair facility and the new Holographic Starfleet Medical Corps headed by Doctor Lewis Zimmerman, the first ever Human/hologram neural transfer subject. Jupiter is home to the third line of defense in the sol system the jupiter patrol. Made up of a dozen cruiser type starships.

Saturn

Saturn is the second largest planetary body in the Sol system with an equatorial diameter of over 74,000 miles. A typical Saturn day is 10 hours, 39 minutes long and it takes twenty-nine point-five times longer than Earth to circle the sun. The atmosphere is primarily composed of hydrogen making it exceptionally light - theoretically, assuming a large enough ocean, Saturn would float upon the surface. The planet is typified by high speed (1100 mph) eastern-bound winds, which are strongest around the equator.

The planet's most defining aspect is its highly visible ring system - the most famous in the system. These rings are governed in shape by Saturn's natural satellites (of which the planet has over thirty) which shepherd their movement. The rings are partly compromised of frozen water blocks, rarely larger than a few metres in length. A more regular size for the compositional fragments which make up the rings is much smaller, with them appearing as dust in some parts at a close range.

Uranus

In Greek mythology, Uranus was the earliest of the Supreme Gods, coming after the Titans and Cyclopes. It was so named because despite its distance from Earth, it was the first extra-terrestrial planet identified by Humans in 1781 (though it had been seen before and dismissed as a star as early as 1690). Current home of the Federation's main methane/hydrogen refueling facility. The facility draws raw Hydrogen from the planet for use in starship fuel mixtures. Uranus' atmosphere is 83 percent hydrogen and is the best mining source for this starship fuel currently available. The planet itself is mainly rock and various ices with only about 15% hydrogen. Despite this, the planet does not appear to have a standard core, in that its material is distributed evenly, rather than concentrated at its centre. It is perhaps because of this that the planet's magnetic pull is not focused on its centre, but rather at 60 degress to the axis of rotation.

Uranus is unique amongst Sol's planets in that its pole faces towards the sun, rather than at an almost right angle to it, meaning that its "South" polar region recieves more energy than it equatorial regions. Despite this anomoly, the planet is strangely hottest along its equator. The planet also has a group of eleven rings, the brightest of which is named the Epsilon ring, though they are notably less visible (and as such less famous), than Saturn's. These rings were the first to be discovered by Humans following Saturn's, dispelling the myth that they were a unique attribute of that planet. Uranus has twenty-one classified moons though there are additional moon-like bodies within the rings that have not been classified.

On occassion, Uranus can be seen via the naked eye from Earth's surface.

Neptune

Named for the Roman God of the Seas due to its large size and distinctive blue colouring, Neptune is the fourth largest (by diameter) planetoid in the system (roughly 60 times the size of Earth), though has a larger mass than Uranus. The planet can sometimes be seen through primitive binoculars from the surface of Earth. Though usually the eighth closest to Sol, the erratic nature of Pluto's orbit means that it is sometimes the outermost planetary body of the system. Though technically a "Gas Giant," there is thought to be a Earth-sized rock at the heart of the planet, which is known to provide heat; twice as much in fact as that received from the system's star. A Neptunian day is 16 hours and 6.7 minutes long, whilst it takes 165 Earth years to orbit the Sun. Neptune has 13 moons, the last of which was discovered in 2003.

The first Earth craft to scan neptune was Voyager 2 in 1989. Its most publicised discovery was a large dark blue spot on the planet's surface, roughly the size of the Earth (half the size of Jupiter's Great Red Spot) thought to be an immense storm. Five years later however, Humans discovered that the spot had disappeared, a result of the rapidly changing atmosphere of the planet. Neptune has the fastest winds in the Solar system at 1200 mph. These generally blow towards the West.

Small Debris Field

This debris field is much smaller than The Field, it consists mainly of vessels junked following the war's conclusion, including the incapacitated vessels used as torpedo and phaser turrets immediately following the Battle of Sol.

Pluto

Small twin planetoid icey outpost and gateway to the Sol system. Currently a platform for the Sol system's "Early Warning Sensor System" (EWSS); a massive outer network of probes, listening stations, sensor arrays, weapons platforms and mines that relay all materials of import on ships and objects in proximity to Sol to Pluto Station and can be controlled remotely from that facility. Construction of a new EDF orbital control Nelis Base was completed in 2403.The construction of the EWSS system was one of the largest undertakings during and after the war.A virtual sphere of technology surrounds the sol system.Most of the probes and weapons platforms are self sustaining and require no outside maintenance.