CASSANDRA'S PLANETOLOGY

A superterrestrial world...greater in mass than Earth but not great enough to be a gas giant. Higher concentrations of Oxygen and Nitrogen in the air than terran lifeforms can stand. 1.75 g., 1.75 earth's diameter, the mass of Cassandra is five times Earth's.

Cassandra circles a K8 sun, Priam. Greenhouse effect plus internal heat gives relatively decent temperature range, despite the lesser irradiation from the sun compared to Earth-normal. Year is 2.3 times Earth's, but since the mass of the sun is much smaller than Sol, only .8 a.u. out.

Axial tilt is 46 degrees, summer and winter much more severe, especially with the longer year. Most animals migrate rather than adapt to the changing conditions.

The sun, Priam, only gives .2 the luminosity of Sol from Earth. Mountains are lower, usually nonexistent....a combination of the higher g and more atmosphere to erode such. Smaller hydrosphere than Earth, chain of lakes, like islands in the Pacific ocean, only in reverse. Once had small oceans, now much of water hangs in the atmosphere. Lowlands really ocean beds, filled with many lakes. Many, many lakes on Cassandra--more land than water, but just barely. 54% land, 46% water.

There is one moon, Helenus, but it is so small and distant that it is barely discernable from the rest of the starry background. Since tidal forces are so negligible, and there are no great seas, it doesn't have the impact that our Moon as from us.