Lucina

Lucina, designated UIP-6, is an enormous interstellar gas giant located exactly ten lightyears from Sol, and nearly halfway between Sirius and Procyon. Lucina has one large, icy moon named Lupus, which serves as a travel hub for the Dogstar Alliance and a base of operations for the aeromining operations on Lucina proper.

Astrography

Location

Lucina and its moon are located, at the present moment, almost exactly halfway between (3.24 ly) the stars Sirius and Procyon -a very fortunate position for the budding young civilizations that have sprung up in those systems. Its true galactic velocity has it moving away from Sirius and toward Procyon at a rate of about 0.006 lightyears every century, and in several million years' time it will pass through the Procyon system (although its velocity is likely much too high to be captured). It has a single large moon: Lupus, an airless erima with a subglacial liquid water mantle.

Structure

Lucina is a large but typical jovian world: its composition is dominated by hydrogen, with a lesser percentage of helium and trace amounts of volatiles. Its core is solid metallic hydrogen, surrounded by a mantle of hot, high-pressure liquid hydrogen, producing an intense magnetic field that protects it and its moon from the worst of the interstellar particle radiation.

Natural Resources

Lucina, as a gas giant, is an excellent source of hydrogen and helium required for nuclear fusion: the dominant form of power generation in interstellar civilization and the basis of most torch drives. Its long exposure to the radiation of interstellar space results in proportionally higher amounts of the isotopes that are ideal for fusion. However, its high gravity complicates the extraction of such resources: its otherwise pitch-dark skies are lit up by the fusion candles of autonomous ramscoop harvesting rigs.

The fusion torches of ramscoop gas harvesters light the otherwise stygian skies of Lucina.

HAZARDS

ORBITAL CHARACTERISTICS

Sol-relative coordinates

RA 07h 12m 10.2s
DEC −05° 26' 42"
DIST 10.0 ly

System

none

Parent body

unbound

Velocity

16.7 km/s trailward-coreward

Rotation period

17.73 hours

Notable satellites

• Lupus (erima)

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Class

frigid superjovia (J)

Radius

86873 km

Surface area

9.48e+10 km²

Volume

2.75e+15 km³

Mass

3.7e+27 kg

Gravity

32.7 m/s²

Atmospheric pressure (cloud layer)

2.29 atm

Atmosphere composition

• 82% hydrogen
• 16% helium
• 1.2% methane
• 0.8% other gases

Average temperature

-247°C

HABITATION INFORMATION
(LUCINE SPHERE)

Tech level

14

Population

82 million

Demonym

Lucine

Asteropolitical Information

Administrated by

Territorial Council of Lucina

Jurisdiction of

Dogstar Alliance

Reality Check

Lucina does not exist, as far as we can tell. Astronomers have yet to discover any rogue planets in the immediate vicinity of the Solar system.