Stellaris D-34: The Dark World
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Nice read and thank you for writing it. 
One nitpick though:
Our human eyes perceive the different spectrums of visible light as colors, while we cannot perceive anything with a wavelength larger than red. This means that all our IR projections are just a 'translation' of IR into visible.
Otoh, eyes that developed naturally to see in IR, could very well be able to differentiate between wavelengths, in a way similar to our color sense. They wouldn't be able to see the *same* colors, but they could very well have colors.
Taking into account that an eye is sensitive only to a certain area, they may not be able to see anything in wavelengths akin to our own visible light, just like we cannot see anything in UV. Most likely on that would be that they would be able to see in some part of visible light too, though not in all of it. A guess could be that they can see up to yellow or green.
This would not severely limit them though, since starlight contains all sort of light (also IR as stated here, though i'm not an expert in astronomy and i may be wrong on that) they would most certainly be able to see well in other starsystems, and in the surface.
They couldn't have evolved otherwise, unless there were a great habitable cave system in their world.
One nitpick though:
This aint exactly true.
Our human eyes perceive the different spectrums of visible light as colors, while we cannot perceive anything with a wavelength larger than red. This means that all our IR projections are just a 'translation' of IR into visible.
Otoh, eyes that developed naturally to see in IR, could very well be able to differentiate between wavelengths, in a way similar to our color sense. They wouldn't be able to see the *same* colors, but they could very well have colors.
Taking into account that an eye is sensitive only to a certain area, they may not be able to see anything in wavelengths akin to our own visible light, just like we cannot see anything in UV. Most likely on that would be that they would be able to see in some part of visible light too, though not in all of it. A guess could be that they can see up to yellow or green.
This would not severely limit them though, since starlight contains all sort of light (also IR as stated here, though i'm not an expert in astronomy and i may be wrong on that) they would most certainly be able to see well in other starsystems, and in the surface.
They couldn't have evolved otherwise, unless there were a great habitable cave system in their world.
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Gliese 581d definitely needs to be covered. I'll add Gliese 581g as an apology for not getting back to you on the terraforming thread.
Nice read and thank you for writing it.
One nitpick though:
This aint exactly true.
Our human eyes perceive the different spectrums of visible light as colors, while we cannot perceive anything with a wavelength larger than red. This means that all our IR projections are just a 'translation' of IR into visible.
Otoh, eyes that developed naturally to see in IR, could very well be able to differentiate between wavelengths, in a way similar to our color sense. They wouldn't be able to see the *same* colors, but they could very well have colors.
Taking into account that an eye is sensitive only to a certain area, they may not be able to see anything in wavelengths akin to our own visible light, just like we cannot see anything in UV. Most likely on that would be that they would be able to see in some part of visible light too, though not in all of it. A guess could be that they can see up to yellow or green.
This would not severely limit them though, since starlight contains all sort of light (also IR as stated here, though i'm not an expert in astronomy and i may be wrong on that) they would most certainly be able to see well in other starsystems, and in the surface.
They couldn't have evolved otherwise, unless there were a great habitable cave system in their world.
That's an interesting point. Yes, there could be "colours" of infrared light in the same way as there are "colours" of visible light. It's also possible that an organism which evolved to live on a planet like Gliese 667Cc would have a vision which stretches from the near-infrared (where the bulk of the light is) into visible red and yellow shades.
Starlight certainly does contain all sorts of light, including infrared. Most stars give off infrared as well as visible light, so these aliens would be able to see well anywhere. They wouldn't be confined underground or to their own planet by any means. However, they might find it easier to cope with underground exploration more easily than we visible-light-only seers would be able to, and so they may not have the same horror of being entombed that we do.
I can easily see such a species being baffled as to why humans have an atavistic fear of the dark.
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I sorta' dodged a bullet there. But yay!
By the way, all your comments are really insightful and interesting, we're really lucky to have you here <3
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So, infrared light is reflected by everything... How could they even know what "darkness" (or in their case, "infinite coldness") is then? And would they see space as a less-hot place or just pure darkness even for their own eyes?
By the way, it's just purely awesome what you're doing here! This series, the Dev Diaries, the Blorg Stream (and other streams) and of course the Meme Thread will make the time until Stellaris very short. And you contribute a huge lot to that effect!
I think they might have difficulty coping with an area with a high background temperature, because then everything would look too bright and it would be impossible to pick out detail, much like trying to have a conversation in a nightclub.
Space for them would probably look much like it does for us: mostly dark and cold, but with occasional dots of light and heat in it.
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OK, I'm just gonna have to ask... What happened to Gliese 667Ca?
Within a star system, the object called "a" is the star itself. The first planet is "b", and then so on. Earth would be Sun d.
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That makes sense I suppose. Gliese 668C seem like it ought to be specific enough but I suppose it makes sense that it has a designation inside its own system as well.
More familiar with the designation system games tend to use, i.e, Sol 3 for Earth and Sol 5b for Jupiter's second moon.
More familiar with the designation system games tend to use, i.e, Sol 3 for Earth and Sol 5b for Jupiter's second moon.
This is a minor point of irritation for me, I'm afraid. "Sol" is not the name of our star, at least in English. It's the term used for the length of the Martian day, and may be used for the length of days on other planets if and when we land on them. This is to avoid confusion with the 24-hour Earth "day."
The English-language name of our star is "Sun" or "the Sun." As such, designations to objects in this system as "Sol 3" or similar are more likely to be people trying to sound cool by using Latin.
In languages other than English, "Sol" may well be the name of our star used by astronomers. If you are playing humans in Stellaris and their international language of science isn't English then ignore what I've said above.
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Your style is very, very nice but I have to also say something less pleasant: you are too much English-centric. Sol is one of names for the Sun in latin (and from it in some other languages). Moreover, AFAIK Sol is the length of day on Mars not on Earth: about 24h39m35s
You are welcome Perhaps, it would be also nice to add that it's a traditional name for the Sun from times when Latin was the language of western science and it's still commonly used in SF literature even in English.
Perhaps, it would be also nice to add that it's a traditional name for the Sun from times when Latin was the language of western science and it's still commonly used in SF literature even in English.
Very good these post you have been putting up have been very interesting. I assume you are an astrophysicist? Something I wanted to add (being a biologist with some physics training) was to do with potential plant life on this planet. On Earth our plants are green because chlorophyll (the molecule responsible for photosynthesis - how plants make their energy) absorbs most light in the yellow-red part of the visual spectrum so we see the green reflected light. If the light from Gliese 667C is significantly shifted to the red and near-infrared part of the spectrum then plants that evolved something similar to chlorophyll on this planet may look closer to yellow as their chlorophyll would work more efficiently by absorbing further into the red part of the spectrum. Essentially the plants here could look as though they are in permanent state of Autumn.
Yea, you're right, the Sun is the English name. But latin names have always been used a lot in science, maybe less so these days. Sol is quite popular in scifi and me being Swedish I might have a preference for Sol as well (being the name we use). Oh, and we do call it the solar system.
But yea, the Sun is the English name.
You are probably right... in their sunlight - they might look different in our sunlight if we ever wanted to see them in it
