OTU Only: Is Yorbund desolate? (Spoilers for Shadows Classic Traveller adventure)

[Spinward Scout]

Is the surrounding area around the pyramids in Shadows just desolate?

Or is there some kind of plant life?

I mean, the Sophonts that were in the structure could take the atmosphere, so why couldn't there be some kind of resistant shrubbery or something?

 

[Spinward Flow]

Is the surrounding area around the pyramids in Shadows just desolate?

Or is there some kind of plant life?

The adventure (in RAW) takes place on Yorbund (C7C6503-7) in the Kinorb Cluster.

How much (and what kind?) of "plant life" are you expecting to be present on a world surface under an Insidious atmosphere?

 

[mike wightman]

The sort that has evolved to cope with the atmosphere of course...

 

[Spinward Flow]

The sort that has evolved to cope with the atmosphere of course...

According to Traveller Worlds, Yorbund is tidally locked to the star, so you've got an "eyeball planet" situation with one hemisphere permanently bombarded with stellar radiation from an M3 V class star ... yielding a "baked side" and a "frozen side" to the planet.

The "ocean" on the world exists in the "twilight band" around the terminator (between permanent day and permanent night) and is composed of sulfur dichloride (SCl₂) ... which is extremely nasty stuff.

It is a highly corrosive and toxic substance, and it reacts on contact with water to form chlorine-containing acids.

So ... if there IS life there ... "It's LIFE, Jim, but not as we know it. Not as we know it. Not as we know it."

Now, last I time I checked ... ... it's "hard" to build pyramids in an ocean (let alone an ocean of SCl₂) ...
Your mileage may vary, of course.

Which would tend to lead to the conclusion that the pyramids must have been built on land somewhere, which then means either on the "bright/baked" side of the world or on the "dark/frozen" side of the world. Good luck figuring out a "life" chemistry that can survive in either environmental condition for millions (billions?) of years needed for biochemical evolution to "work out the kinks" of getting to multi-cellular life forms under an atmosphere that can defeat a vacc suit in 2D hours.

is there some kind of plant life?

Safest assumption is that there is "life" (plant or otherwise) in contact with the atmosphere.
You can still have microbial life in the subterrainean parts of the world, which would "shield" such life from the Insidious atmosphere on the surface, but you aren't going to be finding much in the way of a "lush ecosphere" on Yorbund.

Is the surrounding area around the pyramids in Shadows just desolate?

Magic 8 Ball says ... YES!

 

[Vargr Breath]

Is the surrounding area around the pyramids in Shadows just desolate?

Or is there some kind of plant life?

I mean, the Sophonts that were in the structure could take the atmosphere, so why couldn't there be some kind of resistant shrubbery or something?

 

[Spinward Scout]

Good luck figuring out a "life" chemistry that can survive in either environmental condition for millions (billions?) of years needed for biochemical evolution to "work out the kinks" of getting to multi-cellular life forms under an atmosphere that can defeat a vacc suit in 2D hours.

Safest assumption is that there is "life" (plant or otherwise) in contact with the atmosphere.
You can still have microbial life in the subterrainean parts of the world, which would "shield" such life from the Insidious atmosphere on the surface, but you aren't going to be finding much in the way of a "lush ecosphere" on Yorbund.

Except that there are creatures in the Shadows adventure. They don't have their skin defeated in 8 hours. Even if they were brought there, they obviously can exist in that atmosphere. So, they might have lived in a similar or nearly identical environment.

That's good info about Yorbund, tho. It's not brought up in the adventure. Thanks! The adventure says the pyramid structure was covered by clouds. I doubt it's on the "hot" side.

The sort that has evolved to cope with the atmosphere of course...

Yeah, them.

 

[Grav_Moped]

That's good info about Yorbund, tho. It's not brought up in the adventure. Thanks! The adventure says the pyramid structure was covered by clouds. I doubt it's on the "hot" side

Note that the TW star system info is a much later addition, and was probably randomly generated without reference to the published material beyond incorporating the UWP.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Note that the TW star system info is a much later addition, and was probably randomly generated without reference to the published material beyond incorporating the UWP.

That's a good point. But I can't think of how it can be a problem at this time. The structure probably shouldn't be on the hot side. But have enough light for avian flight. Which is what the laser is for on the pyramid - to keep the flyers away.

 

[whulorigan]

That's a good point. But I can't think of how it can be a problem at this time. The structure probably shouldn't be on the hot side. But have enough light for avian flight. Which is what the laser is for on the pyramid - to keep the flyers away.

Ideally it would probably be located somewhere along the terminator.

Also, keep in mind that Traveller Worlds is just a random generator for maps/worlds - it is a useful tool-at-hand for the referee, but not a "canon-generator". While such a world is highly likely to be tide-locked to the main star, there is no reason it need be. Mercury ought to be tide-locked to Sol, but it isn't - it is in a stable 3:2 orbital resonance because of its orbital eccentricity.

 

[kilemall]

I would think ceramics for skin, both plant and animals.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

According to Traveller Worlds, Yorbund is tidally locked to the star, so you've got an "eyeball planet" situation with one hemisphere permanently bombarded with stellar radiation from an M3 V class star ... yielding a "baked side" and a "frozen side" to the planet.

Couple of things wrong with that:

1. It now generally believed that any world with a decent atmosphere should be able to generate enough convection currents to efficiently move the star side heat to the dark side cold. The weather might be a bit more ... interesting than ours, but it won't be an either/or baking or freezing your tail off proposition. They're still eyeballs, mind you, but they are a bit more survivable eyeballs than was previously thought.
2. Not all worlds in the tidal lock zone would be tidally locked. In addition to different spin orbit resonances, many worlds in the outer range of the star's current tidal lock range will only be so if they do not have an atmosphere. Those other worlds (of which you can count Venus as one) will experience enough tidal drag between their atmospheres and surfaces that they will rotate -- but only backwards in relationship to their orbits. Again, this is what is going on with Venus.
3. The assumption that Yorbund is inside its star's tidal lock zone is based on the idea that has to be in order for it to be inside its star's so-called 'habitable zone'. But Yorbund is clearly not habitable in the first place (at least not to Terra Norm life), so why should it conform to that? In fact, given what we know about Yorbund's atmosphere (dense, corrosive, volcanic), one could argue that placing it inside the traditional Goldilocks zone is a recipe for a runaway greenhouse, unless that cloud cover has one helluva powerful albedo going for it.
4. It is also possibly worth noting that the albedo effect is a function of what wavelength of light is affecting it. Red dwarfs produce light much farther into the red/infrared range than our Sun does, which might mean (for instance) that worlds might have to be a bit further out from those stars (relative to their stellar output) in order to be as habitable as Terra is for us, due to the fact that water has a lower albedo to infrared than to higher wavelengths of light.

It is also possible that the corrosive nature of Yorbund's atmosphere is simply due to it being made up of great big pools of superheated superfluids. But since there are creatures that can live on Yorbund (even if not native to it), and the canonical descriptions of our adventurers wandering around on its surface do not mention them having to deal with apocalyptically harsh temperature and crush depth issues wreaking havoc on their civilian grade vacc suits, I think we can rule that out here.

Good luck figuring out a "life" chemistry that can survive in either environmental condition for millions (billions?) of years needed for biochemical evolution to "work out the kinks" of getting to multi-cellular life forms under an atmosphere that can defeat a vacc suit in 2D hours.

The 'Shadows' adventure actually addresses that, at least part way. The creatures 'infesting' the pyramid and environs have biological processes that actively keep the corrosive effects at bay (no doubt at tremendous metabolic cost), and when they die, they fairly quickly dissolve into a greasy mist. This is why the original inhabitants of the pyramid kept them around -- because food had to be eaten as close to live as possible. Grab it and swallow, as it were.

Safest assumption is that there is "life" (plant or otherwise) in contact with the atmosphere.
You can still have microbial life in the subterrainean parts of the world, which would "shield" such life from the Insidious atmosphere on the surface, but you aren't going to be finding much in the way of a "lush ecosphere" on Yorbund.

It is true that other than what is described above, nothing more is said about Yorbund's biosphere. And the creatures apparently can subsist entirely on each other, making them a self contained ecology?