The term planet refers to any celestial body composed of matter and with a large enough mass and gravitation pull to take on a spherical form.
Nature[]
Planets came in many forms but all are composed of the 'mundane' forms of matter, solids, liquids or gases. Every planet has a core, often made of metal, which generates an EM field that protects it from the sun's harmful rays, though for some, their metal core has stopped working such as Mars.
All planets naturally orbit something, a planet that doesn't, which floats aimlessly through space is called a rogue planet.
Terminology[]
- Rogue Planet: A planet which does not orbit a star or another planet. Instead it moves through space.
- Solid Planet: A planet whose surface is solid, primarily rock
- Garden World/Planet/Gaian Planet: A planet which can support life, often resembling Earth.
- Goldilocks Zone: The area of orbits around a star(s), where planets can sustain life.
- Moons: A planet, usually a smaller one, which orbits another planet.
- Gas Giants: A giant planet, composed entirely of gas, generally hundreds, thousands of times bigger than Solid Planets.
- Ice Planet: A planet made primarily of ice, or simply covered by it. It could also refer to a Solid Planet covered in perpetual winter.
- Equator: The ring that marks the middle of the planet, as it sits on the furthest edge of the sphere it is the part of the planet closest to the sun and thus the hottest.
- Poles: The literal top and bottom of a planet, they are the farthest from the sun(s) on a planet and thus the coolest/coldest.
- Flora: Plants
- Fauna: Animals
Main Types of Planets[]
- Continental Planets: Planets with a mixture of oceans, land masses and various different biomes. The biome diversity usually deserts at the equator, lush forests in the temperate zones and icy domains for the poles.
- Desert Planets: Closer to the sun where it is warmer, they are inhospitable for most races. They are marked with a band of scorching deserts near the equator and vegetation, even forests near the poles as opposed to ice. There is relatively little water and thus flora and fauna.
- Arid Planets: At a similar distance to the sun as Desert World, Arid worlds have more humidity, though it is still low. Plant life is at a minimum and what plants do appear tend to be among the most unique.
- Tundra Planets: Despite low temperatures they are inhabitable. Tall plants like trees are rare, with most vegetation being limited to moss a lichens with deep roots. At the equator one can sometimes find flowing water and even forests.
- Tropical Planets: Warm worlds with high humidity. They are known for extreme vegetation and swamp lands
- Arctic Planets: Among the roughest of habitable worlds. Most vegetation is limited to a the equator if any.
- Ocean Planets: Mostly covered in water, what little landmass appears is limited islands and archipelagos.
- Barren Planets: Either too hot or cold and with little to no water or astmosphere, few things could hope to survive even on these worlds. They are also the most common in the galaxy.
- Molten Planets: Worlds too close to their sun, they go beyond volcanic and are spheres of lava seas and toxic gas.
- Toxic Planets: From either nuclear winters, or simple pollution, these worlds are inhospitable for most things.
- Ice Planet: Found on the farthest edges of a solar system, some are not even solid rocks but asteroids fused together by ice.