Orion Sphere LRP

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====== Lax'Thepat ======

**Location:** [[sector:Wesrix's Sector]]\\ 
**Claimed by:** [[:Dominion]]\\ 

The Lax'Thepat system is an oddity of astronomy - a fluke of gravity with an unknown cause. The system itself consists of a small dwarf star in a binary alignment with a pair of brown dwarfs. The brown dwarfs, sub-stellar objects which emit infra-red radiation but little visible light, have a series of orbiting planets bound to their central point of mass, while an array of larger planets orbit around both the primary star and brown dwarf pair.

Gathering sensor data from the planets close to the brown dwarf pair is difficult, as the twin brown dwarfs each emit powerful and chaotic electromagnetic fields due to their internal convection.

===== Lax'Thepat Primary =====

**Type:** Main Sequence, Subdwarf\\ 
**Radius:** 0.74 Standard\\ 
**Mass:** 0.69 Standard\\ 
**Black-body Temperature:** 4400K\\ 

===== Lax'Thepat Secondary =====

**Type:** Brown Dwarf\\ 
**Radius:** 0.15 Standard\\ 
**Mass:** 0.0041 Standard\\ 
**Black-body Temperature:** 1860K\\ 

The slightly larger of the two brown dwarfs, Lax'Thepat Secondary is anomalously hot given its size and mass.

===== Lax'Thepat Tertiary =====

**Type:** Brown Dwarf\\ 
**Radius:** 0.14 Standard\\ 
**Mass:** 0.0038 Standard\\ 
**Black-body Temperature:** 1399K\\ 

===== Orbiting Bodies =====

==== Lax'Thepat I ====

**Type:** Barren World\\ 

A moderately-sized barren world in a figure-8 orbit around the primary star and brown dwarf pair. It has a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

==== Lax'Thepat II ====

**Type:** Toxic World\\ 
**Class:** Nitric Acid\\

Lax'Thepat II orbits the primary star and brown dwarf pair in a figure-8 configuration, variably heating and freezing at different distances from the primary star. The planet is orbited by a [[:Dominion]] research station, operated by the //Greatness In Small Things// research group. This station monitors the strange astronomical interactions, as well as the bizarre lifeforms that survive on the planets orbiting the brown dwarf pair.

==== Lax'Thepat III ====

**Type:** Tomb World\\ 
**Class:** Unknown\\
**Designation:** Hazardous, do not approach\\ 

Orbiting the entire system in a perfectly circular orbit at a distance of 80AU, Lax'Thepat III is a dark, forbidding sphere of rock, the surface of which is studded with dome-shaped structures interlined by carved canal-like chasms. Starships attempting to orbit this planet exhibit rapid unexplained energy depletion, and most observations have to be carried out from significant distance.

==== Lax'Thepat Brown Dwarf Cluster ====

The majority of planet-sized objects in the system lie within the Lax'Thepat Brown Dwarf Cluster - an arrangement of planets that tightly orbit the brown dwarf pair. The majority of these planets contain life of some kind (mostly micro-organisms), although that life is universally non-compatible with standard carbon-oxygen biology. The planets themselves are arranged in a bizarrely regular orbital arrangement that seems to be impossible for it to have naturally occurred. Combined with the strange structures visible on Lax'Thepat III, it it thought that the Brown Dwarf Cluster is in some ways artificial.

=== Lax'Thepat Cluster I ===

**Type:** Barren World\\ 

A small world closest to the brown dwarf pair, this planet receives the most heat of all the planets in the Cluster. Its thin atmosphere is dominated by carbon monoxide and nitrogen. Almost the entire surface of the planet is covered by a microbial mat, which traps dust and sediment from the few mountainous areas of the planet. The microbial mat is up to a kilometre thick in places.

=== Lax'Thepat Cluster II ===

**Type:** Toxic World\\

This large planet is highly tectonically active, and displays the greatest orbital eccentricity of those in the cluster. Its crust is regularly split by volcanoes and rifts, and its atmosphere is mostly hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide. Its lava fields are grazed by a variety of macrofauna, which feed on the bacterial coatings breaking down the rock.

=== Lax'Thepat Cluster III ===

**Type:** Ice World\\

A cold world, this planet is mostly covered in water ice, but does have some spots of liquid water. Fungus-like structures pierce the ice sheets in tall spires, and then spread dark spores across the surface which absorb infra-red radiation from the brown dwarf pair.

=== Lax'Thepat Cluster IV ===

**Type:** Ice World\\

A barren tundra tracked across by huge glaciers of carbon dioxide ice.

=== Lax'Thepat Cluster V ===

**Type:** Ice World\\

A rock world covered by a thick water-ice crust. It has a tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Its surface is striated by cracks and streaks, whereas craters are relatively rare. It is thought to have liquid-water seas beneath the ice crust, which have a strange pinkish hue, thought to be the presence of high concentrations of potassium permanganate.

=== Lax'Thepat Cluster VI ===

**Type:** Barren World\\

A small rock world with a thin atmosphere of hydrogen sulphide, this planet is host to a dizzying array of micro-organisms, which coat the flat rock surface with an array of exotic colours.

=== Lax'Thepat Cluster VII ===

**Type:** Ice World\\

An icy ammonia world, this planet is covered by solid layer of frozen ammonia up to 1000 kilometres thick in places. In the thinner regions, branching structures have been observed from orbit. These structures are thought to be the fronds of large plant-like organisms, and their slow rippling has been used to track the movement of currents in the liquid ammonia seas beneath the surface.

=== Lax'Thepat Cluster VIII ===

**Type:** Toxic World\\
**Class:** Carbon dioxide/sulphuric acid\\

A medium-sized world with an extremely thick atmosphere. This planet's dense carbon dioxide atmosphere traps almost all the heat that enters it in an extremely strong greenhouse effect, with surface temperatures reaching almost 900K. The sulphur component of the atmosphere manifests as dense clouds which race across the planet's upper atmosphere and produce massive lightning storms. The surface of Lax'Thepat Cluster VIII has not been surveyed successfully, as the atmosphere obscures any visuals and probes cannot survive the acidic environment and crushing pressures on the surface.

=== Lax'Thepat Cluster IX ===

**Type:** Barren World\\

This large planet is a barren rock orbiting at the greatest distance from the brown dwarf pair of all the planets in the cluster. It is surrounded by a ring of fine dust and debris, and is orbited by two small, irregular moons.

{{tag>galactipedia astro-cartography system dominion_system}}
Orion Sphere LRP

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