Yuva in 3D!

The credit goes to Mr. A.G. Claymore and his skills with 3D art. Thanks to him, we have the first glimpses of Gliese 581 g, aka. Yuva, in 3D. Using both the rough mock-up that I made months back using Microsoft Paint and some stock footage from NASA, this is what he produced.In this shot, you get a view of the “Light Side” of the tidally-locked planet, with the continent of Vogt looking up at ya! This is the largest landmass on the planet and the place where the capitol of Zarmina is located.

Below is the flip side of the planet, what would typically be known as the “Dark Side” (until an orbital mirror was put in orbit to reflect sunlight). Here, the principle continent being viewed is Udry, home to the Eastern Bloc and the capitol city of Shangdu.

Much of the geography and settlements are still being developed, and more details are being added with each new story. I tell ya, there’s something inherently satisfying about seeing a world take shape. And that goes for both the literary and visual aspects of creation. Even the creators themselves don’t know what the end result will look like. But thanks to these images, we all have a slightly better idea 😉

Astronomers Confirms The Existence of Habitable Exoplanets!

Wow! It’s fun and amazing when things line up like this. According to IO9, astronomers have confirmed that there are two exoplanets that may be habitable, which will come in handy when the human race begins looking for new planets to colonize. Officially, these planets are known as Gliese 581 g and c, which orbit a star system located roughly 20 light years from Earth.

Can you say coincidence? By now, just about everyone who reads my blog knows that myself and a group of writers are hard at work producing an anthology about the colonization of a distant world in the not-too-distant future. Well guess where it’s set? Gliese 581-freaking-g! That’s where! Yes, in the course of researching realistic locations for our story, Mr. Goran Zidar suggested we use this star system seeing as how it is known to have a system of planets.

After doing our due diligence, we learned that two planets are deemed habitable by human standards, Gliese 581 g and c. And of the two, g is the prime candidate for settlement, being the closest in mass, surface temperature and gravity to Earth. Yes, with a little terraforming, this planet could be hosting a settled population withing a few generations.

I love it when fiction and real life come together like this! Granted, this “news” isn’t exactly new. In fact, Gliese has been in on astronomers radar for quite some time, and has been dubbed “Zarmina” by scientists. But it’s new to us. And frankly, I like our choice of name better. Yeah, Yuva sounds so much more palatable than Zarmina, doesn’t it? I think so…