General Offer of Expertise

[sozme]

Thanks for your reply and the great map you posted. The main issue I am having, not only with this individual mapping project but with writing in general is that I have a fairly severe clinical OCD. It is extremely difficult for me to actually place some of the homeworlds on a galaxy map because I am unsure about whether or not that specific spot is reasonable, whether or not that specific spot has a star system in it that is actually named, and whether or not there is some other identifying marker there that I could use in creating the map. I've been planning the details of the story itself for many years now, but I'm stuck on this one part. I might just have to try to pay and hire someone like yourself to help me actually create the map. Ive tried to do it so many times myself but have been completely unsatisfied and have not been able to find a good resource to make it easier for me.

[Azélor]

Thanks for your reply and the great map you posted. The main issue I am having, not only with this individual mapping project but with writing in general is that I have a fairly severe clinical OCD. It is extremely difficult for me to actually place some of the homeworlds on a galaxy map because I am unsure about whether or not that specific spot is reasonable, whether or not that specific spot has a star system in it that is actually named, and whether or not there is some other identifying marker there that I could use in creating the map. I've been planning the details of the story itself for many years now, but I'm stuck on this one part. I might just have to try to pay and hire someone like yourself to help me actually create the map. Ive tried to do it so many times myself but have been completely unsatisfied and have not been able to find a good resource to make it easier for me.

are you creating a new galaxy or adding stars to the Milky way like in Mass effect?

My best tips in worlbuilding in general if your not sure what to do : imitate your surrounding. Look at where the Sun is in the galaxy. Why ? What's around ?
If I remember correctly, the homeworld in mass effect shared some characteristics. Where are they located in the galaxy and what kind of star they have are probably the 2 most important criteria that I can remember.

BlackChakram: I would like to hear what makes life and/or planet formation less probable. You said that being close to the center of the galaxy makes these impossible or being too close to a nebula. Are there other objects or phenomenons that might prevent the creation of life ?

[BlackChakram]

BlackChakram: I would like to hear what makes life and/or planet formation less probable. You said that being close to the center of the galaxy makes these impossible or being too close to a nebula. Are there other objects or phenomenons that might prevent the creation of life?

Whoof. Another tall order. Naima, this will also apply to some of the stuff we have in the other thread.

Alright. The basics of stellar formation.
It starts with the death of another star. A supernova goes and a star blows off tons of material into space. The shock wave from this explosion hits other clouds of gas and dust that are scattered everywhere throughout the galaxy. These clouds are huge. Hundreds of light years across. And thin by human standards - if you were flying through one, you'd never know it. Anyway. This shock wave causes the giant cloud to start collapsing in on itself from the very weak but present gravity. As the cloud collapses, it starts to spin. Technically, it was spinning very slowly already, but the collapse makes it spin faster. (Like an ice skater pulling in her arms to spin faster.) As it collapses more, areas with just a little more density become "knots" of material that start pulling nearby gas in. Each of these knots - of which there are hundreds - will become a star system. Some knots are big and will make huge stars that die quickly and make more shock waves, most are small stars that will burn for tens of billions of years. Eventually, each little knot is dense enough to ignite fusion and a star is born. The pressure and radiation from the new star blows most of the gas to the "outer" parts of the system and the dust stays in the inner part of the system. The chunks of dust collide and grow until you have planets. In the outer areas, they do the same, but then start collecting gas, making gas giants. Some of these giants can then migrate inwards (through processes that are still only barely understood). Voila. A star system.

So.... factors that can affect formation and life.

Let's go back to when the knots are collapsing into stars. If we have a huge knot, it turns into a massive star. Massive stars live fast and die young. In fact, they die before a lot of the other star systems are done forming. They explode as supernovae and the explosion blows away the dust and gas from nearby systems, stripping them of any planets that may have been forming and usually blowing away some of the forming star as well. This is what makes habitability in a forming system difficult. Even if you're on the outskirts and in a system that's already formed, you're regularly getting flooded with radiation from exploding giant stars. And not UV "eh, I can handle it" radiation. It's X rays and gamma rays.

If we have a migrating "hot jupiter", those usually sweep up and destroy forming planets as well, so if you make a system with a gas giant close to the star, reduce your number of rocky planets.

That's what messes with formation. As for life, we already mentioned radiation. There's only one other rule. Water. Water is special in that its an excellent solvent for so many chemicals. Anything living has to be able to get information and nutrients around to the different parts of the body or cells. Liquids are the easiest way of doing this and water is one of only a few that genuinely work for all the complex molecules you'd need. (I'm not a biologist, so I can't tell you more than that.) Since liquid water is the only requirement, all you have to do is ask yourself, "is there a place on this planet where I can get liquid water?" For that, see this thread. So if you want to know what would prevent life, all you have to do is think on what could be preventing liquid water. Too hot, too cold, not enough air pressure, a planet with chemicals that react with water to remove it all, etc etc.

[sozme]

are you creating a new galaxy or adding stars to the Milky way like in Mass effect?

I'm just adding stars to the Milky Way. But my main issue is, if you look at the Mass Effect map, they've named certain regions of the galaxy and assert that there are alien worlds there. My thing is... Will I be able to place any homeworlds without putting them in an area where it wouldn't be found?

[BlackChakram]

It is extremely difficult for me to actually place some of the homeworlds on a galaxy map because I am unsure about whether or not that specific spot is reasonable, whether or not that specific spot has a star system in it that is actually named, and whether or not there is some other identifying marker there that I could use in creating the map.

Alright. A tall order, but I like challenges! Especially when my perfectionism gets to meet up with someone's clinical OCD

1) Whether a specific spot is reasonable. This one is the easy one. Stars with planets that could be habitable can be found anywhere colored blue on the NASA map I linked before. That's pretty much everywhere except the core. Areas between the arms of the galaxy are sparse, so you'd likely not want to place a homeworld there. So anywhere labeled "arm" is 100% viable. No astronomer would argue with it. Additionally, with 400 billion stars in the galaxy, any spot you pick in the arms will have stars.

2) Whether or not the spot you pick has a named star. This is a bit trickier, because it depends on what you mean by "named". We would all agree that Deneb is definitely a named star. But what about Rho Orionis or OGLE-2005-BLG-390L? Both of those are simply technical names for cataloguing. In most sci fi, these kinds of systems are renamed once they're explored, colonized, etc, so as long as your universe is set in the future, you could very plausibly come up with your own names for any star like this an no one would bat an eye. So how far out do the real names go? Well, stars with real names have roots in antiquity. In antiquity you could only name what you could see with the naked eye. The farthest star visible to the naked eye is the Hershel's Garnet Star, at about 10,000 light years from earth. Everything past that should only have a technical designation for a name.

3) Other identifying markers. Here's the beauty. Beyond that ring at 10,000 light years mentioned above, the only stars with any measure of detailed information are the ones that are out of the ordinary. I.E. containing a black hole, a supergiant star about to go nova, one wth a discovered extrasolar planet etc. The good news is that since there are 400 billion stars, if you somehow pick a spot that has one of these, you just move over a few light years and bam, you have a nice, unnamed star that you can do whatever you want with. (For reference, though, the farthest star with extrasolar planets to date is OGLE-2005-BLG-390L, at about 25,000 light years.

So the gist of it here is that if you pick anything past 25,000 light years and stick to the blue areas in the arms, no astronomer or professional could have any rational objection. If you want to pick things within 25,000 light years, consult me. I'm a school teacher, so I never say no to consulting money, but I also like helping people for free, so we can do things however you want.