Moon of the gas giant Nevea
Score: 352 | 2/23/15 |
Nevea is a supergiant planet of the Fafnir class, with a mass almost nine times that of Jupiter, yet approximately the same diameter. It spins very rapidly on its axis and has a system of close to a thousand dark faint rings,concentric circles of particles in orbit around Nevea's equator. The rings are extremely difficult to see. The overall color of Nevea is blue.
Nevea's surface gravity is more than 23 times that of the Earth, causing its atmosphere to diminish rapidly with altitude. In fact, a spacecraft could orbit Nevea in the near-vacuum just a few miles above the cloud tops.
Nevea is always in the same place in the sky, since its its stupendous tidal power long ago forced Erona, as well as its other nearer satellites, to keep the same face toward their primary.
Nevea can never be seen from the West Face of Erona. Along the boundary of the East Face, Nevea is always on the horizon. Nevea eclipses Ator every day near the vernal equinox, and also every day near the autumnal equinox. During the Summer, Ator passes North of Nevea each day, during the Winter,South of Nevea. The brief interval when Ator is eclipsed by Nevea is called the Darkening,and that is the darkest time in Eraven. The duration of the Darkening varies, but is never more than about three quarters of an Erona hour, due to Nevea's apparent diameter of 11.8 degrees, roughly 23 times the apparent diameter ofthe Moon as seen from the Earth.
During the Darkening, Nevea's visible face is black, outlined by a thin red circle, the effect of refraction of sunlight in Nevea's thin atmosphere.The rings are seen edge on from Erona, but since Eraven is substantially North of the equator, it looks "down" on the rings at a very small angle. To the extent that they can be seen at all, the rings look like thin spikes projecting from Nevea's equator.
The Darkening only occurs near the equinoxes. It is the best time to observe most astronomical objects, as it is darker than night.
Nevea has a number of known moons. The major ones are Erbalt, Erona, Alene, and Medea, in that order from Nevea.
Erbalt, a moon of the Io class, somewhat smaller than Earth's moon, is dry and volcanically active.
Alene is believed habitable because continents, oceans, and glaciers can clearly be seen from Eraven.
Medea appears blue and has no permanent surface features, although a pattern of white cloudy formations is usuallyvisible.
The rapid sweep of Nevea's stupendous magnetic field through space powers vast electrical storms in the thin ion cloud which always surrounds Nevea, continually replenished by Erbalt's volcanos. Enormous bolts of electricity, thousands of miles in length, continually strike Erbalt, and occasionally strike Erona or Alene.
One Erona day is basically one revolution of Erona around Nevea. An Erona day is 1.218 Earth days, or approximately 29.23 Earth hours. Erona's year is the same as Nevea's year (and, for that matter, Alene's year) and is approximately 320 Erona days (about 390 Earth days), Nevea's equator, and the orbits of its inner moons, are inclined 25 degrees to the orbit of Nevea, giving Eraven seasons.
Special thanks to Lawrence L. Larmore, Phd for help on this page.