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Darwin IV

Darwin IV from the Documentary Alien Planet

Darwin IV
Source

Expedition (book) 

Alien Planet (documentary)

Orbital Position 4
Moons 2
Class Terrestrial
Gravity 0.6 g
Atmosphere Oxygen-rich (too much for human breathing)
Climate Semi-arid
Diameter 6,563 km
Primary Terrain Deserts and mountains, with a few areas of vegetation
Surface water Small water bodies, the largest body of water is covered by a major superorganism
Rotation period 26.7 Earth hours
Orbital Period 728 Earth days

Darwin IV is a small desertic rocky planet, the fourth planet in the Darwin Binary System formed by 6 planets, is 6.5 light years away from Earth's Solar System. With a very dense atmosphere and little gravity, it is home to a large number of complex organisms characterized by lack of eyes and rely mainly on echolocation and infrared vision, with different and aberrant forms and sizes.  In both the book Expedition and the documentary Alien Planet, Darwin IV is the first planet with complex life explored by humanity and where most of the events in both media happen.

Characteristics[]

Compared to Earth, the planet has far less surface water being only 5% covering the surface, which is mostly locked by the Amoebic matrix, and the rest of the water is found in the atmosphere, as well as in the polar caps and subterranean aquifers that protrude across the planet as small puddles.

The planet has lower gravity in addition to its atmosphere, allowing for organisms to get much larger than what is possible on Earth. Probably due to its small size (it is only a few hundred kilometers smaller in diameter than Mars), it has lost most of its major oceans over the eons. The terrain around the tropics and poles in both hemispheres is predominantly a plain with some geographic features probably caused by the now extinct oceans or by the now scarce rivers and lakes, while at the equator exist a series of mountain ranges which form a mountainous belt around the planet.

Environments[]

Due to the lack of large water bodies, its environment is predominantly arid, dominated by vast deserts, grasslands and with huge mountain ranges and long tundra around the poles. However, it still has small patches of forests, aquifers, as strange environments as the amobeic sea, and even by the density of the atmosphere the sky makes this its own environment.

Grasslands and plains[]

Forests[]

Amoebic Sea[]

Also known as Mare Amoebicus, the Amoebic Sea is a vast, gelatinous, sea-like organism completely covering a large body of water located in Planitia Borealis in the planet's northern hemisphere. Comprising a complex matrix of symbiotic life forms roughly 10 meters deep, it is Darwin IV's strangest biome, and at roughly 5% of the planet's surface area, the largest single colony organism known.

Littoral zones[]

Mountains[]

Tundra[]

Air[]

Life[]

Flora[]

Fauna[]

The variety of faunistic organisms that exists on Darwin IV is quite bizarre in terms of diversity and complexity, since most have quite different morphologies varying in body shape, size, and number of limbs and appendages. As such, an exact taxonomic affinity is difficult to attribute to any one particular species (e.g. the Emperor Sea Strider is a relative of the Beach Walker, but both species exhibit variants that make the relationship difficult to link). However, these organisms still have basic features that are found in all fauna: no eyes, no jaws, no fur or filamentous covering; naked, rugose, leathery skin; tubular structures similar to a proboscis; perceiving their world by sonar and/or infrared via specialized organs; and bioluminescence.

The majority of the predominant fauna seem to have some kind of endoskeleton, quite similar to those of Earth vertebrates, having several defined bilateral bauplans.

History and exploration[]

Expedition[]

In the middle of the 24th century, humanity has destroyed the Earth's ecology, but a benevolent sentient alien race - the Yma - has contacted us and assisted us in the repair of the planet. Thanks to observations made by the Yma with their use of "faster-than-light" satellites, the Darwin binary star system was discovered. After sending a probe to that system, the two races began to prepare an expedition mission to the system in 2355, being fully equipped one year later. This massive project was formed by a team of scientists, technicians, and surveyors, human "tourists" including the author and wildlife illustrator of the book, Barlowe, alongside the Yma. The three-year-long mission was done through three vessels called "orbitstars" which arrived at the habitable zone planet, Darwin IV, on 6 January 2358. It is implied in the book that this mission is not just exploratory, but also an opportunity for humanity to re-educate itself after the destruction of the native biosphere of the earth; the Yma made it clear that this would be a mission of observation, without interaction or physical contact with the native life. During the mission, Barlowe, along with several other members, explored and observed most of the fauna and flora of the planet, gathering data and recording what they could find, with an eventuality that ended with the death of two Yma in the mountainous areas. This, however, had no major impact on the mission. After supplies were depleted, the mission ended and the exploration team left Darwin IV on 24 March 2361.

Alien Planet[]

In this timeline, the exploration of Darwin IV occurs in the "near future" where, instead of humans, a series of probes with advanced artificial intelligence is sent over several decades. The ship travels at 20% the speed of light across 6 light years. After a journey lasting decades, the Von Braun probe is deployed, and after collecting atmospheric data by the use of a small observation satellite, it sends the Probes nicknamed Balboa, Ike and Leo, of which the first has a flaw in its capsule and explodes upon entering the atmosphere. However, the other two manage to land in a plains region. 

Under Construction Darwin IV is under construction!.

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