Terran Planet

A Terran Planet is a planet template that mimics Earth. Terran Planets will follow Earth's history in how they are first formed, the first few geological events they face, and how life evolves on them. It is the template we will use to initially generate planets and design our game, until we have enough content in the game and enough knowledge on the team to start simulating more exotic and alien planet templates.

Overview

Terran Planets always share the following characteristics:

• The planet is formed with a nitrogenous atmosphere and iron/nickel based core which creates a magnetic field around the planet.
• The planet forms an orbiting moon early in its history
• Liquid water oceans form early in the history of the planet, as the planet cools and as the densifying atmosphere condenses the water vapour to precipitate into rain
• Lightning and radiation constantly generate and destroy biomolecules near the ocean surface, but water currents carry some of these to the deep ocean where they accumulate
• Life first develops near Hydrothermal Vents, facilitated by their heat and the accumulation of biomolecules
• Life evolves to be carbon-based, using Glucose, Ammonia, and Phosphate to grow and reproduce
• Life eventually evolves Oxygenic Photosynthesis, a biological process that begins to produce oxygen in the planet.
• The accumulation of oxygen eventually leads to a Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), where many of the chemical compositions of the planet are radically changed by the introduction of oxygen. There is also a massive extinction as many species die from oxygen toxicity. The remaining species adapt to use oxygen, or retreat to anoxic environments.
• The onset of a GOE event leads to a Snowball Planet event later on. This Snowball Planet event acts as another extinction event, killing all of the species that do not adapt in time.
• From the end of the Snowball Planet event onwards, the rest of the planet's history is open to random chance.
• To be filled out with the rest of the characteristics...