Rogue WORLDS

When we come to think of planets we most commonly think of the bright sun bound planets around the stars of the federation, we think of atmospheres and exuberant life and exotic landscapes. Yet these types of planets are not the only ones to exist, we of course would then think of the jovian worlds, and the other types of terrestrial worlds, which are also following curves around their parent suns, but we rarely think of the rogue planets which are in nearly everyway as complex and majestic as their sun bound counterparts.

            Rogue planets generally have very complicated histories, most of first formed within a conventional solar system, but are usually then ejected from their home systems early in their development, others, are formed without suns whatsoever and form like stars out of condensing clouds of gas and dust, these distinct origins generate the classical divide found in these types of planets.

            The more common type, the low initial mass rogues, have their origins within star systems, they nearly always start off with masses less than Jupiter, as bodies much larger than this are hard to fling out of these early star systems (though research suggests that suitable close binary systems may be able to eject nearly all of their planets regardless of mass). These relatively small planets then wander from their parent systems, sometimes changing completely from their initial makeup, with many gorging on interstellar gas and growing to jovian and super jovian size.

            The other type, the high initial mass rogues, are formed from the contraction of dust and gas, in the same way that most star systems form, though the amount of material is insufficient to generate a true star, yet alone planets. The most common in this development are the ‘failed stars’ these are not technically classed as rogue planets, but sometimes this process will happen at even smaller scales, and produce planets with only a few Jupiter masses.

            In many ways it is these later systems that are the more interesting, these planets have evolved separately to familiar worlds, some pass off very good impressions of archetypal jovian worlds, complete with systems of moons, some even (though rarely) generate life, the only kind that is completely independent of suns (as normal worlds are dependent on them for their formation). Though many worlds are not as normal as these, some are jovian, without moons, and they are unusual boundaries between star and sun, generating more energy than the receive from the cool interstellar space.

            The planets which have their origin within solar systems often undergo remarkable changes, as has already been stated, often forcing upon planets completely different forms of evolution, some originally terrestrial worlds first lose their primeval atmospheres as they condense out in the cold, some even collect seas of cryogenic liquids from interstellar space, which are only stable from the extreme cold, and these are lost when these approach new suns forming brilliant comets. Other worlds, usually younger, retain a great deal of their internal heat and remain, although frozen at the surface, warm beneath, sometimes volcanism forming oasises of warmth on the planet’s surface. Many rogues consume interstellar gases becoming jovian, the difference between these new jovians and naturally forming ones almost indistinguishable (isotopic and elemental abundances are key to their identification).

            Sometimes a rogue’s long journey may lead to another star (though its journey can take from only a few million years, to several thousand million years, and some never make it to new suns, as they travel from galactic plane), the result is more often than not a long hyperbolic fall leading it to be sent into space again, though the chaos it causes reduces its momentum somewhat, so that eventually it may come into orbit around a new star. These orbits tend to be highly elliptical, and sometimes lead to the destruction of a rogue, forming a debris belt.