Ember is not a well studied planet. Separated from Earth by 47 light years of space that take six weeks to traverse, Ember is the most remote human settlement with regular starship route to Earth and is the closest thing to a uncharted planet that any of the miners or settlers on Ember are likely to ever see. Thirty years ago, the planet Ember was briefly surveyed by UN contractors but has not been visited since then. What precious little information was gathered by the initial survey team has been distilled here.


[hider=Planetary factfile]
[b]Planet name - official:[/b] SEVI-T3
[b]Planet name - common:[/b] Ember
[b]Star name:[/b] HS216 SEVI
[b]Mass:[/b] 0.825 M⊕ (82.5% of Earth's mass)
[b]Surface gravity:[/b] 8.92 m/s^2 (91.0% of Earth's surface gravity)
[b]Satellites:[/b] 2
[/hider]

[hider=Prehistoric Ember]
"With a pitiful 6-7% of its surface comprised of liquid water, Ember is very much an arid planet, but it has not always been this way. With just a cursory glance at Ember's surface from orbit, it is plain to see that Ember was once a much wetter world than it is today. The vast painted savannas and salt deserts that dominate Ember's southern hemisphere are ancient seabeds, and the sheer canyons that cut through the highlands of the northern hemisphere were carved out by mighty rivers that have been reduced to a trickle if they even run at all. Mighty pillars of sandstone that rise up from the savannas are the remnants of of prehistoric beaches eroded into impressive spires by a receding ocean. That same ocean, that once spanned the globe and covered perhaps all of Ember's southern hemisphere, is now reduced to an anemic smattering of shallow lakes and seas pooled at the planet's very lowest altitudes.

Where did all of this water go? I believe most it went into space; sheared off with most of the planet's prehistoric atmosphere by solar radiation. Ember's magnetic field, the force that prevents solar winds from ripping off a planet's atmosphere, is much weaker than Earth's. For whatever reason, this planet's core appears to be slowing down and it appears that this phenomenon has wrought havoc on the planet's atmosphere and hydrology. A billion years ago, Ember must have been much like our Venus: a planet blanketed by a dense, stifling atmosphere. I envision a humid, venusian waterworld, that suddenly (geologically speaking, at least) saw dramatic changes to its atmospheric composition and hydrology. Humanity has happened upon a snapshot in Ember's history in which the planet's atmospheric composition happened to be perfectly suited to supporting Earth life. But Ember's hospitality won't last long; for this planet's star will continue to tear away the remaining atmosphere and water until the seas have totally dried and the last whiff of air cast into the void of space. In spite of the diversity of life on this planet, Ember is in fact a dying world."

-Zhao Henjibou, SEVI-T3 survey geologist[/hider]