I found a water world

Markzeero · Oct 29, 2017

Like it says in the title I found a water world but the strange thing was that it didn't have an atmosphere or ice caps it was just a completely blue sphere. I would have thought the atmosphere might have have been made up of water as water when exposed to a vacuum would boil therefore creating an atmosphere. This leads on to the next problem, the water boiling would use energy this would mean that the remaining water would freeze but there were no ice caps.

Cheers,
Mark

Sunleader · Oct 29, 2017

Markzeero said:
Like it says in the title I found a water world but the strange thing was that it didn't have an atmosphere or ice caps it was just a completely blue sphere. I would have thought the atmosphere might have have been made up of water as water when exposed to a vacuum would boil therefore creating an atmosphere. This leads on to the next problem, the water boiling would use energy this would mean that the remaining water would freeze but there were no ice caps.

Cheers,
Mark

Screenshot ?
System Name ?
^^

duckofdeath · Oct 29, 2017

I suspect those were intended as early "landing" alternatives to the dry worlds we have now. Like, a next step towards the ultimate landing permit on earth-likes. Maybe they'll surprise us and unlock them next season with the fancy new engine tweaks?
I don't think there's any scientific proof for that type of planet able to exist. Especially not at the rate we find them.

duckofdeath · Oct 29, 2017

There are a few oddities with the water worlds in out galaxy. Their temperatures are often also a bit unrealistic.
How about a 150 kelvin planet with liquid water?

http://www.elitegalaxyonline.com/object-view/?object_id=1131683

Markzeero · Oct 29, 2017

Sunleader said:
Screenshot ?
System Name ?
^^

Screen shot: https://imgur.com/a/aHzWC

If there's a better way to post images let me know.

Cheers,
Mark

Whitmann · Oct 29, 2017

These aren't tremendously unusual. At a guess I'd say somewhere between 1 per 30-40 water worlds I've found have been like this. Slightly darker blue.

Manticore · Oct 29, 2017

I've seen water worlds with ammonia atmospheres... it may have been one of them.

Whitmann · Oct 29, 2017

Like this?

Markzeero · Oct 29, 2017

I know the physics of this game is a bit dodgy, that doesn't seem to bother me but as a chemist I find the chemistry annoying. But that's just me.

Cheers,
Mark

Heavy Johnson · Oct 29, 2017

I like to read "water" as "any phase of H2O". It helps a little bit with the odd cases.

Manticore · Oct 29, 2017

H[SUB]2[/SUB]O in any state I suppose............ yes.

Whitmann said:
Like this?

https://ibb.co/d7ybfm https://image.ibb.co/nNWwfm/blue_two.jpg

Since I've begun to notice WW's with ammonia atmospheres they seem to be the WW's with a hazy, whitish type of atmospheric layer. Nice shot though............. the blue marble.

Wosthisdo · Oct 29, 2017

And it doesn't hurt that an un-tagged, terraformable WW is the most valuable exploration prize at about 1M Cr

iain666 · Oct 30, 2017

Wosthisdo said:
And it doesn't hurt that an un-tagged, terraformable WW is the most valuable exploration prize at about 1M Cr

Terraformable WW and ELW are worth the same by mass - usually in the 6-700k Cr range (and potentially over 1m with first discovery bonus). I've personally seen bigger WW CFTs than ELWs but I'm not sure which holds the record.

Heavy Johnson · Oct 30, 2017

iain666 said:
Terraformable WW and ELW are worth the same by mass - usually in the 6-700k Cr range (and potentially over 1m with first discovery bonus). I've personally seen bigger WW CFTs than ELWs but I'm not sure which holds the record.

Which is strange, since you think that ELWs would be worth more....

Whiterose · Oct 30, 2017

Markzeero said:
Like it says in the title I found a water world but the strange thing was that it didn't have an atmosphere or ice caps it was just a completely blue sphere. I would have thought the atmosphere might have have been made up of water as water when exposed to a vacuum would boil therefore creating an atmosphere. This leads on to the next problem, the water boiling would use energy this would mean that the remaining water would freeze but there were no ice caps.

Cheers,
Mark

I have seen those. They are worth 5 points.

Sapyx · Oct 30, 2017

These "blue marble" airless waterworlds are indeed a violation of the laws of physics, because you can't have liquid water exposed to a vacuum. The water would either boil away or freeze, with no in-between phase. A very thin water-only atmosphere could in theory allow liquid water to form, but then, that would show up as a "100% water" atmosphere, rather than "no atmosphere". It's just a glitch in the stellar forge, which has an overly simple "yes/no" question: does the planet have an atmosphere or not? If yes, then calculate atmosphere composition.

Airless ammonia worlds are equally physics-breaking. At least they made sure that airless ELWs were an impossibility.

Heavy Johnson said:
I like to read "water" as "any phase of H2O". It helps a little bit with the odd cases.

Sorry, but that theory just won't hold water (if you'll pardon the pun). If a solid pure-water-ice surface counted as a "waterworld", then Europa, Enceladus and several other outer moons and dwarf planets in Sol system would all be teeny tiny airless waterworlds. They're not, they're ice worlds.

A waterworld is a planet with a water-based hydrosphere and ecosystem. That means liquid oceans. A final proof that the blue marbles are supposed to have a liquid water surface comes from the fact that these blue marble planets always have small ice-white icecaps at the poles.

Comandante · Oct 30, 2017

Markzeero said:
Like it says in the title I found a water world but the strange thing was that it didn't have an atmosphere or ice caps it was just a completely blue sphere. I would have thought the atmosphere might have have been made up of water as water when exposed to a vacuum would boil therefore creating an atmosphere. This leads on to the next problem, the water boiling would use energy this would mean that the remaining water would freeze but there were no ice caps.

Cheers,
Mark

It's probably terrestrial and water on the basis that the surface is ice (hence no atmosphere), but could be like Enceladus or Europa - containing the terrestrial element underneath the frozen surface.

That would 'technically' be different to an ice planet, which would mainly be ice and rock.

Think of Earth when the planet was completely frozen over and almost no life existed 2.4 billion years ago - the Huronian glaciation - if the planet you list would be like this, either time (through volcanic activity) or human influence could potentially change that.

I'm inclined to think that if there's a bug, it should show a frozen planet that looks like an ice planet, but contains oceans underneath.

Post Edit

That makes me wonder what Enceladus and Europa are listed as in their descriptions... At work ATM and not near my gaming machine so can't find out. Perhaps size has something to do with terrestrial water worlds, I'm no astrobiologist/geologist/anything to know, just throwing in some ideas in...