Where do I go (online) to learn basic planetology?

[Trekkin]

I'm trying to put together some kind of applet I can use for literal worldbuilding, at least in the bulk sense, so my homebrew settings don't seem totally nonsensical from a physical standpoint. I just keep running into problems finding information that doesn't tackle the extremes of star formation and so forth, outside of a very few hints about maximum cold body radius for a given atomic mass and number.

Are any hypothetical algorithms or equations that govern the formation of stars and planets available online, and where do I have to go to learn how to employ them?

Ideally, I'd want to be able to start with a giant molecular cloud of so-and-so composition and figure out, stochastically, a reasonable guess at the resultant solar system.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I'm trying to put together some kind of applet I can use for literal worldbuilding, at least in the bulk sense, so my homebrew settings don't seem totally nonsensical from a physical standpoint. I just keep running into problems finding information that doesn't tackle the extremes of star formation and so forth, outside of a very few hints about maximum cold body radius for a given atomic mass and number.

Are any hypothetical algorithms or equations that govern the formation of stars and planets available online, and where do I have to go to learn how to employ them?

Ideally, I'd want to be able to start with a giant molecular cloud of so-and-so composition and figure out, stochastically, a reasonable guess at the resultant solar system.

Try this- http://world-builders.org/

You can construct all kinds of hypotheticals - using science!

[Trekkin]

Ahh, many thanks. This helps immensely. Is there anything with more on the climatology?

[TheWombatOfDoom]

In the lesson units under air, sea, climate there's a bunch. Otherwise I'd study examples on wikipedia of areas you'd like to mimic on earth.

[Trekkin]

In the lesson units under air, sea, climate there's a bunch. Otherwise I'd study examples on wikipedia of areas you'd like to mimic on earth.

Good idea, that.

And the Worldbuilders site keeps being more and more instructive. That, combined with the Universe Sandbox and a bit of maths, have got me a ludicrously metal-rich planet that, despite orbiting a red dwarf of similarly ridiculous metallicity and having an albedo of around 0.9, is bumped into the habitable temperature zone by its own core heat. Somewhere along the line, I added a moon, which is now so close to the Roche limit it's making 2-km tides orbiting once per 31 hours, making the 3-hour day even crazier. The first time I tried working out the magnetic field strength at the equator and at mean sea level, I got 5 Tesla.

Well, I wanted not-quite-Earthlike...

[factotum]

I assume you're intending on having the inhabitants of your planet be entirely aquatic, then? There's certainly no life going to exist on the land, since it would be scoured away by the tidal wave--in fact, I would imagine that wave would eventually scour away the entire landmass, leaving you with a planet-wide ocean.

[Trekkin]

I assume you're intending on having the inhabitants of your planet be entirely aquatic, then? There's certainly no life going to exist on the land, since it would be scoured away by the tidal wave--in fact, I would imagine that wave would eventually scour away the entire landmass, leaving you with a planet-wide ocean.

It certainly would, without the increase in volcanic activity implied by the much higher core heat implied by the increased radioactive decay; there's a not inconsiderable turnover rate between the crust and the mantle . I haven't figured it out yet, but there may well be a consistent amount of land, if completely inconsistent landmasses.

But yes, it's almost entirely either aquatic. Sessile organisms would almost have to be either benthic or amphibious, though, given the 5 km intertidal zone.