Frigus

General Info

Frigus is a cool E-Class world with multicellular life on land and in the oceans. It is the 4th planet in the Vamana Template:InfoboxPlanetsystem, an orange dwarf with 11 planets.

Geography

The planet is covered by thick ice sheets at the poles, which grow during the long winters and recede during the short summers. There are a few landmasses in the middle, covered by mountains, tundras, and forests of massive redwood trees. The water oceans cover most of the land, and are extremely cold; cold enough to instantly give you hypothermia if you were to fall into them. Some icy rivers also flow through the continents.

Life

The life on Frigus is mostly plants, with few animals. The plants consist of mostly massive redwood trees, with some ferns, mosses, and bushes. The animal life consists of a species similar to wolves, along with their prey; a deer-like species. There are also smaller, mouse like creatures that roam the forest floors of the redwoods.

A sunset on Frigus, behind it's mountains

Weather/Atmosphere

The atmosphere of Frigus is almost entirely carbon dioxide, with trace amounts of oxygen and a extremely small amount of sulfur dioxide. The climate on Frigus is cold; that is literally what it's name means in Ancient Latin, ranging from -15 degrees in the long winters and 2 degrees in the short summers. The strange seasons are due to it's orbit, which is slightly elliptical giving it longer, colder winters and shorter, mild summers. The weather is pretty fair, but storms are common near the equator were the temperatures can reach up to 10 degrees, causing a mixture of low pressure air from the equator to mix with the low pressure air of the temperate and polar zones, causing storms near the equator. The storms are a strange type of hurricane; cold hurricanes. Instead of heavy flooding, rain and wind, the cold hurricanes create strong blizzards, ice storms, and freezing temperatures. Rain is rare, but it can happen near the equator if a cold hurricane is not near it. Snow is very common in the temperate and polar zones.

History

~12 billion years BCE: Along with most of the spiral galaxies in the universe, the Nent Galaxy, were Frigus is located, formed around this point during the early days of the universe.

4.631 billion years BCE: A cloud of dust started to collapse into a star due to a nearby supernova. The star Vamana was formed, along with accretion disk that orbited it.

4.421 billion years BCE: During the formation of the Vamana System, a large clump of rock from the accretion disk formed into the infant planet Frigus, along with some of the other planets in the Vamana System. The planet, along with almost all planets in the universe, had a hard and fiery infancy, with impacts being common.

4.209 billion years BCE: There used to be more than 11 planets in the Vamana system during it's early days, and the newly formed planet Brevis was on a collision course with Frigus. The planet then grazed the planet's surface, and was not a direct hit. If it was, the planet might not have ever survived. The planet Bevis was mostly blown to bits, formed into a ring that started to form around the planet. All that was left from Brevis was it's strong iron core, that remained to orbit Frigus. That eventually formed together with the ring material to become Petram, a selena moon very similar to Luna.

4.083 billion years BCE: As asteroids started to collide with planets or form asteroid belts, their supply ran low. The material left after the creation of the Vamana system was used up, and so impacts were a lot less common. This gave a chance for the planets to cool down. From some of the comets that impacted Frigus, water began to become a liquid on it's surface. The world had it's first oceans. Ice also started to form around it's poles. The atmosphere was mostly nitrogen during this period, with a third of it being carbon dioxide with some traces of oxygen and water vapor.

3.723 billion years BCE: Somehow, carbon atoms began to form together into complex sugars and proteins. It was a miracle. The first life had formed in the depths near hydrothermal vents: bacteria. The bacteria evolved, forming very small multicellular beings.

3.514 billion years BCE: The basic fishes began to migrate upward, and then found the surface. It was a frozen wasteland with the highest temperatures being -147 degrees. Meanwhile, the bacteria still near the hydrothermal vents were polluting the water with carbon dioxide. The gas rose to the surface, and started to build up in the atmosphere. The planet began to gain more carbon dioxide. This began to form a layer of greenhouse gas, which warmed the planet. The planet that was outside of the habitable zone, warmed up from the greenhouse effect. Even with this effect, the planet was still only -52 degrees. The nitrogen in the atmosphere was dropping. The surface was now ice flats and glaciers. The fishes evolved strong exoskeletons and a very revolutionary feature: begin warm-blooded. They no longer depended on the warm volcanic vents to survive. The first plant life formed: blue-green algae. It produced carbon dioxide at a more faster rate. The temperature rose to -28 degrees. The animal life evolved to go on land.

2.983 billion years BCE: The atmosphere was now 99 percent carbon dioxide, and the greenhouse effect warmed the planet to a mild -9 degrees, the temperature it was at now. The bacteria started to evolve, and unicellular life on Frigus did not exist anymore. It was entirely multicellular. Fishes roamed the oceans, with pockets of plant life near the warm volcanic vents. Meanwhile on the surface, the terrestrial life has evolved from amphibious creatures to furry mammals more ready to face the cold. Plant life grew into bushes, grass, and small trees. The surface of Frigus turned from brown to green near the equator.

2.556 billion years BCE: Disaster strikes. The active mantle layer starts to create powerful volcanoes. A supervolcanic eruption more powerful than Earth has ever seen erupts on the newly formed island of Clade. It pumps tons of ash and sulfur dioxide into the planet's atmosphere. Large pockets of coal created from dead plants began to burn beneath the planet's surface. The whole place burned. The temperature rose to a warm 57 degrees Celsius. The plant and animal life that was not ready for this died from the heat. The ice caps melted away, flooding all the land. The planet was now a hot water-world. 93 percent of all life died. Most of the fish died from ocean aciddication caused by the volcanoes. The terrestrial life was dead long before the flooding came. Life came very close to dying. The only thing that survived were the small fishes and plant life that grew near the hydrothermal vents. They were safe havens to life. The life had no idea that the supervolcano had erupted. They probably didn't even know the surface existed. They were fine. And the volcanoes stopped. The coal was burned away. The atmosphere was now 92 percent carbon dioxide, 7 percent sulfur dioxide, and 1 percent other gasses. The life started to reproduce the carbon, and the atmosphere stabilized. The temperatures dropped back down. The ice caps returned, and the waters receded. Land emerged from the oceans. The life had to evolve again to go onto land. But they had came so close to extinction. The deep ocean dwellers were the sole survivors.

1.902 billion years BCE: Life had recovered. It had improved. Plants evolved strong trunks that allowed them to grow tall and large, forming the large redwood forests that cover most of it's solid land. Green returned to the land. Life had bounced back. Life continued to evolve, but never evolved into anything smart enough as humans. Though some creatures did evolve a conscious. They had feelings, friendships, and fears. Small packs formed between the creatures. Nothing interesting happened for a long time.

4212 years CE: A human ship travelling through the Nent galaxy had arrived at Frigus. A probe had discovered the planet a few months before. The humans, a population of 1,000, landed on the planet and settled a colony near it's largest impact crater, an inland sea called the Etiam Sea. The base expanded, forming a city with a population of 2 billion. Oher cities spread out across the planet's landmasses. But the atmosphere was still not breathable for humans. Terraforming began.

4278 years CE: After decades of oxygenizing the planet's atmosphere, it became breathable for humans. The planet already had a strong magnetic field, and so they didn't have to create an artificial one. Terraforming was easy and short. The global population was now 13 billion. Colonists spread out to the other planets of Vamana. Frigus had became a large trading outpost, and the merchants sold the rare coats of the wolf-like, deer-like, and bear-like creatures that roamed the woods illegally on the black market.

4282 years CE: After years of being under the radar, the gangs of crooks that had been poaching the wildlife were caught and a conversation act was placed to protect the rare species of Frigus. The planet's commercial industry began to die out, and it became a prime spot for researching, and a grand university comparable to Oxford in the 20th century was constructed. Things were going good. And nothing changed for a long time, and I'm going to stop writing this because it's midnight and i'm tired! The timeline might be expanded, but for now it is complete.

Frigus's discovery by probe