Holy crap. I had no idea how much I don't know.
Last week, a sci-fi RPG publisher asked me to create a planetary map and a continent map for its upcoming publication. I've been thinking in two dimensions with Photoshop as my tool.
Spinning planet video never entered my mind.
I feel something like I did when a sci-fi author friend first handed me Stephen L. Gillett's World-Building; A Writer's Guid to Constructing Star Systems and Life-Supporting Planets. There's are simple formulas for escape velocity? Tidal braking? Binary star system's gravity? I'm so in the dark!