Arctic Planet

[caters]

I am thinking of writing a story that is all about the arctic. But not the arctic on Earth but a whole planet of arctic. It is habitable but super cold(just like the arctic here on earth)

A few human-like characters happen to be stuck in the ice. A polar bear hears the characters and comes to break the ice. He breaks them free and welcomes them to the arctic. They stay with the polar bear for warmth.

But I am wondering. How would I make the whole planet have arctic weather with a spring, summer, fall, and winter? The star is very new and so it would be extremely hot(hotter than our sun if you can imagine such a thing)

This would potentially melt all the ice and snow that makes the arctic what it is. This would be good for the human-like characters but bad for the polar bears and other arctic life. And remember the characters are with the polar bear for warmth.

 

[Alexandria Batchelor]

Research "snowball Earth." A problem you face is: ice and snow are white and thus reflect light and heat. If you put ice on the equator, then your planet will quickly become too cold to support life. Don't do this. Instead, have open ocean on your equator. The water will absorb heat and keep your planet alive. Merely, make it so the only land masses are near the poles. Boats made of animal hide sealed with pitch are surprisingly seaworthy, if you want the north and south to be joined but have no trees for boatbuilding.

Luck

 

[valiant12]

Make your planet further apart from the sun compared to earth, yet close enough to have oceans with liquid water.

 

[Penpilot]

There are different ways you can approach this. First, you can look for a scientific way to make it work. I mean the Earth has had ice ages where most of the planet was covered in snow and ice.

Second, don't worry about the science of it at all and just make the planet how ever you want it to be and treat that as fact.

For the most part, if the details of why the planet is the way it is don't impact the story, then to me, it doesn't matter.

The old saying is don't let facts get in the way of a good story. Just look at the Star Wars universe and Hoth. No where in the Empire Strikes Back is it ever explained why Hoth is a planet of ice. It just is.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

If a planet is small and has a thin atmosphere it will trap less heat. Also the composition of the atmosphere- less water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere the less heat will be trapped. If the day/night cycle is long then each night may be create winter-like conditions that are reversed during the long days.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Bad for polar bears and other arctic life? How exactly? What kind of arctic life are we talking here? Assuming there is dirt beneath the ice, warmer weather benefits well, pretty much everybody. No dirt, then you better be amphibious at least. LOL. So, no dirt, humans are going to sink too, or build boats to survive on and eat lots and lots of fish.

Polar bears aren't going to care much about temps that fall into earth-like ranges for survival. All they care about is food and water sources, they won't melt like the wicked witch taking a bath.

But in general, don't fret the science. If the books a success, let the fans argue about the why, LOL. Unless you're going hard sci-fi.

 

[Clearmadness]

This seems like an interesting idea. I'm thinking you would have to put some thought into the food web and creatures of your world. Are you planning on creating your own or using earth animals?

Do you know the ecology of polar bears? They aren't land animals. They need to hunt on arctic ice. They don't wander far from the shore ever.

On a ice world most life would probably be aquatic. With a lot of ice covering the surface you wouldn't see a lot of plant life so a lot of animals would get their nutrients from the water. Think penguins, other sea birds, seals, polar bears.