BEHIND COLONIZATION

A colony system/world must be concordant with the following criterion:

A colony planet must also be in the later stages of its evolution, regular surface bombardment, and or wide-scale surface volcanism or out-gassing rule out any colonization efforts.

Preference for colonization favours planets with an effective magnetosphere, which reduces radiation exposure, and damaging effect of the solar wind on the atmosphere.

Although plate tectonics are a good sign in the fact that this allows efficient carbon reclamation and recycling, as well as providing out-gassing for atmospheric replenishment, large scale volcanism or earthquake events are less favorable, planets that have been shown to have cataclysmic event of either volcanic or earthquake type are generally ruled out for wide scale colonization.

Large oceans are also favourable for colonization as these act to regulate temperature, and provide temperate maritime climates in polar regions. The oceans also a play a part in regulating atmospheric composition and help to consume some volcanic carbon dioxide moderating climatic changing effects. Oceans are also important from an aesthetic viewpoint.

A rapid rotational period is also important, though this is also an important factor for meteorological and biological viewpoints. Rapid rotation tends to evenly distribute temperature across the surface, and also increases the coriolis effect, which generates winds which also aid in distributing heat.

Conventional terrestrial Earth like planets are favoured, with active tectonics, this is mainly because of element cycling and outgassing, but this kind of geology also encourages the formation of familiar surface features which contribute to climatic variation and creating an ‘authentic’ environment.

Active heat producing cores are also favoured, as these tend to support healthy magnetospheres.

High-density planets are also favoured as planets rich in iron, also tend to have similar geological structure as Earth like planets. Planets richer in silicates, and therefore less dense tend not to have strong magnetospheres, and frequently tectonic and volcanic activities halt early in their development. High density planets also offer appropriate gravitational fields, where as few silicate favoured planets grow to the size where they offer comparable strength fields.