Description[]
Providence is a particularly intriguing cold ice planet, located around 12,940 light years away from Sol in the Via Lactea. Providence is an intriguing planet to study by many astrobiologists and astronomers alike, for it harbors multicellular life underneath multiple kilometres-thick ice crust. The crust itself is also peculiar, for it has outlasted many impacts; as seen on its surface.
Discovery[]
Providence is currently located inside of the Milky Way Galaxy, acting as the sixth planet orbiting an M1.8V orange dwarf, in a triple orange dwarf system, and completes an orbit of its parent star every 362.6 days. Researchers and other scientific faculty were surprised at how a subglacial ocean existed under the crust, especially with evidence of constant meteoroid barrage. However, someone hypothesized that the carbon dioxide oceans underneath the crust constantly replenished it, as the average temperature was -138.6 Celsius around the clock. Also, it sports a low density despite its size.
Providence's atmisphere and exo-crust regions are extremely cold, being -138.6 degrees Celsius due to its semimajor axis from its weak parent star at 0.7 AU, approximately. As mentioned before, this permeating chill can cause the carbon dioxide oceans beneath the crust to freeze up, along with the pressure of the liquid mantle itself from being squeezed by the crust.
The planet also has a faint, black-colored ring surrounding the circumference of the planet, possibly resorting from long-ago collisions that also made two of Providence's main moons.
A probe was sent to study and confirm if Providence could be any way habitable, and it yielded poor results. Alas, another probe was sent to investigate if living organisms exist (as almost every molecule on Providence had carbon atoms), and it was proved; large pings were detected from leviathan beasts several kilometers under the crust. Providence was tagged as not habitable, due to the lack of oxygen as a whole, the minimal light recieved for normal vision, and the freezing temperatures. The explorers who discovered Providence unanimously declared to leave Providence colonist-free, and to only drop off a few astrobiologists and geologist to investigate the crust & the possible beasts of the oceans below.
Stellar Parent: M1.8 V Orange Dwarf[]
The parent star.
The parent orange dwarf is a member of a trinary system. Due to being a dwarf and not sufficiently a main sequence star, the heat and luminosity it gives off seems not enough for terrestrial life. This assertion becomes a prime testament to conserving the subglacial lifeforms on Providence from uneducated speculation. The other two orange dwarves seem to be stable in orbit with this star.
Subglacial Life[]
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The parent star, as seen from ridges of Providence's crust.
Life has been hypothesized to appear on Providence around 3 to 2 billion years ago. Due to this extended period of time, it is no surprise that multicellular lifeforms exist beneath the crust.
When a new experimental probe was dropped into a borehole that fed into the liquid mantle, a few pictures were taken of the lifeforms in infrared and other wavelengths. Although it is nigh-impossible to see their visual appearance, the monolithic size from such distances conclude that these lifeforms live in small or solitary-group lifestyles, and they propagate in numbers similar to whales; due to their immense sizes. The largest specimen recorded was an eel-shaped undulating beast 250 kilometers beneath the crust, measuring at 1.6 kilometers long.
Since the crust, the atmosphere, and potentially the oceans all possess organic compounds in high concentration, it is safe to say that these organisms are carbon-based. Since the liquid mantle may be carbon dioxide or monoxide, their respiration patterns may be akin to a plant's. The problem is, no photosynthesis is possible to break the molecules down into pure oxygen for use. Because of this, astrobiologists have to assume that these creatures have specialized organs dedicated to breaking the carbon-oxygen double covalent bonds.
Moons []
Providence's first moon, Sovereignty.
Providence has a total of seven different moons; two main moons and five smaller asteroids. The two main moons are similar to Providence, in that they are cold ice worlds. The asteroids are simply cold variants, and seem to have little to no influence of Providence's axial tilt or orbit. The first major moon, nicknamed "Sovereignty", has a diameter of 995.1 kilometres. The second moon, nicknamed "Lordy", also has a similar diameter.
Although none of the moons have life, their appearances and compositions are eerily similar to that of Providence, hinting that they may be the result of a long-ago collision.
Human Transit & Life[]
Providence's sole station, PROV-A-1, serves as a transit location between neighborhood star systems, and has temporary housing for observing scientists and researchers. It can house up to five large craft, and up to 2,000 citizens on constant life support. The back shielding allows the vital processes of the ship to not be bombarded by particles in orbit, and the many antennas allow instant communication to be easy and accessible to all patrons.