Planetary Attributes

Spore and Planets

Planets are really at the center of Spore from the moment you begin to play. Though, you may not realize it until you venture into Space. Because by the time you have a space craft terraforming will become awfully intriguing to you. While we have an article detailing the process of how to terraform planets, we though thought some might be interested in understanding the main physical and environment pieces that make certain planets viable and others completely hostile to life.

Atmosphere

No Atmosphere: Water evaporates and there is no protection from ultraviolet light. Dramatic differences in temperature between the side that faces the sun (warmer) and the dark side (colder).

Dense: Retains heat and allows life to use the gases present in the atmosphere as basis for organic molecules. If the planet is close to its star (ie. Venus), far too much heat will be retained and it will trigger either a wet or runaway greenhouse effect which will increase the temperature further and eventually rid the planet of any water through evaporation.

Ultra Dense (Gas Giants): The atmosphere is so thick that it’s pressure crushes everything on the planet’s surface. It’s like living under a very deep ocean.

Magnetic Field

None: Without it, the planet is not shielded from the star’s powerful solar winds. Over time, solar winds can strip a planet of it’s atmosphere. Mars is an example of this. It slowly lost its magnetic field as its molten core solidified (the circular movement of a planet’s molten core along with a planet’s rotation is what causes the magnetic field - if the core solidifies, this movement is impossible and the magnetic field disappears) and its atmosphere is now greatly reduced.

Present: It protects the planet from the harmful solar winds and therefore helps maintain the planet’s atmosphere.

Size of a Planet

Small: A small planet loses its interior heat much faster; therefore its molten core will solidify earlier. This has a two fold effect, the first being the loss of its magnetic field and the second is the diminished amount of volcanic activity. Volcanic activity is extremely important for the recycling of the planet’s material and supplying the energy for chemical reactions via deep seas vents.

Large: Retains its internal heat for a much longer period of time and therefore there is more volcanic activity and the possibility for the a magnetic field (only present if the planet has a fast enough rotation, for example mercury is far too slow and has no magnetic field).