# Arctic Planet



## caters (Dec 19, 2015)

I am thinking of writing a story that is all about the arctic. But not  the arctic on Earth but a whole planet of arctic. It is habitable but  super cold(just like the arctic here on earth)

A few human-like characters happen to be stuck in the ice. A polar bear  hears the characters and comes to break the ice. He breaks them free and  welcomes them to the arctic. They stay with the polar bear for warmth.

But I am wondering. How would I make the whole planet have arctic  weather with a spring, summer, fall, and winter? The star is very new  and so it would be extremely hot(hotter than our sun if you can imagine  such a thing)

This would potentially melt all the ice and snow that makes the arctic  what it is. This would be good for the human-like characters but bad for  the polar bears and other arctic life. And remember the characters are  with the polar bear for warmth.


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## Ariel (Dec 19, 2015)

A new star would have new planets--not enough time for life to form much less become complex life.  There are hotter stars than ours that are older as well.  That shouldn't be a problem--and, really is that important to your story?

If you want an arctic planet that has seasons there's an interesting hypothesized moon that orbits an exoplanet.  This particular exoplanet is like Jupiter but it has an extreme elliptical orbit.  It passes through the star's habitable sun twice in its orbit.  If this planet and moon were earth then it would be as though earth came in close to the sun near Mercury's orbit (unbearably hot) then swung out near Jupiter and became very cold.  The hypothetical moon would freeze over and stay frozen while past Juliter but would thaw and have wild and stormy "springs" and "autumns" during the times it is in the habitable zone.  Soon after its spring it would become blisteringly hot as it passes close to the star.  Unfortunately, these conditions would not be great for complex life either.

The best way to have an Arctic planet is for it to be at the edge of the star's habitable zone--almost to Mars.  It will need an atmosphere that is not burned away by the solar wind and is not made of heavy hot gasses--so it should be more like earth.

Also remember--earth itself has gone through fairly long ice ages.


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## caters (Dec 19, 2015)

Yes I know and a lot of those ice ages were caused by volcanic winters and lots of photosynthesis before that leading to a cold, high O2 atmosphere.


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## Riptide (Dec 20, 2015)

I guess you could just read up on how the season actually do happen in the arctic. People still live in freezing parts of the world too, so you can learn from them, like the Inuit. I am a little curious as to what the story is. Does it matter about the sun? is it like a reverse global warming deal that these animals are trying to deal with? Because people can adapt... while the animals have a higher possibility of dying.


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