The Chronicles of Local Space

Gliese 667

Star charts

Gliese 667 as seen from Sol.	Sol as seen from Gliese 667.

Gliese 667 is a triple star system located in Scorpius about 23.60 light years from Sol. The star system is about 2.1 billion years old.

Gliese 667 A and Gliese 667 B orbit each other with a period of about 42 years. Gliese 667 C orbits the other two stars in a wide orbit.

Local Space

Probes of the Dandelion Project reached the system in 2836. The probes found a total of twelve planets orbiting the three stars, including two worlds that were in the habitable zone of their respective stars. The worlds were not given top priority for terraforming because Sabrina was a life-bearing world with an extremely long solar day, and Isala was a low-mass tidelocked world slightly larger than Mars.

MLO 4 A

Planets orbiting Gliese 667 A have names based on the Latin names of rivers in England.

Auvona

Auvona is an Erebian world with a size somewhere between Mercury and Mars. The world shows signs of past geological processes such as volcanism, but the world now appears to be geologically inert.

Sabrina

Sabrina is a Earthlike world. Sabrina is one of the lifebearing worlds discovered by the probes of the Dandelion Project. The world had microbial life in the oceans and on land. These lifeforms approximated the pattern of life on Earth about 2,000 million years ago. The lifeforms of the world were quarantined for more than 200 years after the world was discovered so the life could be studied in its pristine state.

In 3105 the Expansionists rose to power in the Terrestrial Confederation. They placed lifebearing worlds like Sabrina on the terraforming list for consideration by the Terraforming Committee. In 3120 the Terraforming Committee approved the world for terraforming because its lifeforms were found to be compatible with Earth-based life. Terraforming commenced in 3126 and was completed in 3306. It is home to the colony of Sabrina.

Sabrina is an unusual world because its sidereal day is only two percent shorter than the length of its year. The slow rotation gives the world a solar day that is so long — more than 24 Earth Standard years — that the residents of this world must be nomadic: they regularly migrate from one continent to another to avoid the long night. The long day is caused by tidal drag from the local sun. The world is almost tidally locked; the process of tidal locking is so close to completion that the length of each solar day is more than two Earth Standard days longer than the last, an increase of about 0.03%. According to the best guesses from the Sabrinese astronomers, the process of tidal locking will be complete in between 70,000 and 100,000 Earth Standard years.

The long night on Sabrina is divided into periods of true night when both suns are below the horizon, and dimday when the distant Tiny Sun is above the horizon. The dimday is about as brightly lit as a room at night that is well-lit. The dimday is not bright enough to sustain plant growth because the light energy from the distant B sun has only about ¹⁄₆₀₀ of the intensity of the light from the True Sun. The dimday and true night each last for about 75 standard days as long as the True Sun is below the horizon. Twilight on Sabrina lasts for about an Earth Standard Year and is broken by the alternation between dimday and true night.

Deva

Deva is a Lacustric world. The world has a thin atmosphere about ¹/₅ the pressure of Earth’s composed primarily of carbon dioxide with about three percent nitrogen and one percent argon. The thickness of the atmosphere is an indication of the youth of the star system, as the atmosphere of such worlds tends to dissipate as the planet ages. Although Deva has seasonal surface water, probes have not found any evidence for life on this world.

As the world ages, its atmosphere will grow thinner, which will trap less heat from the local sun. Most of the remaining water will also be lost to space along with the atmosphere. Eventually the world will be transformed into the Arean type.

Deva has one small moon named Chester, named for a city in England through which the Dee river flows. This moon orbits Deva almost as fast as the planet rotates. From the surface of Deva, Chester moves so slowly that it takes about 13 days to cross the sky.

MLO 4 B

Planets orbiting Gliese 667 B have names based on the Latin names of rivers in Germany.

Visurgis

Visurgis is a small, hot Selenian world with only a trace of atmosphere. The closest planet to its local sun, Visurgis is tidelocked to that sun.

Isala

Isala is a tidelocked Geothermic world located in the habitable zone of its local sun. The world shows some signs of ongoing volcanic activity, and the thin atmosphere of the world is rich in volcanic gases. It is a low-gravity world with a surface gravity of about half a gee.

The world is on a shortlist for future terraforming. It has not yet been terraformed because its low gravity is close to the 0.5 gee minimum that the Terraforming Committee uses as the criteria for terraforming.

Albis

Albis is a GaiaGelidian world. The world is an icebound world with a global blanket of ice. If the world was warmer it would have a global ocean. Scientists suspect that the world may have primitive life under the ice, but no probe has yet been able to penetrate the ice sheet to determine this.

The world has two small moons in close orbits.

Mosa

Mosa is a Lithic Gelidian world slightly larger than Mars. The world has two small moons and a thin atmosphere.

Gliese 667 C

MLO 4 C

Planets orbiting Gliese 667 C have names based on the Latin names of rivers in France.

Atax

Arauris

Saravus

Oltis

Rodanus

Further reading

Nonfictional links

• Gliese 667 A, Gliese 667 B and Gliese 667 C in the ARI Database for Nearby Stars.
• Gliese 667 in the Bright Star Catalogue.
• is in the Encyclopedia of Suns.
• Gliese 667 in the Internet Stellar Database.
• Gliese 667 in the SIMBAD Astronomical Database.
• Gliese 667 in Solstation.
• Gliese 667 in Wikipedia.

Acknowledgements

This page uses the planetary classification system developed for the ArcBuilder Universe by J.M.Dollan.

This document was last modified 2011-01-09 11:25:14 UTC.
Copyright © 2004-2011 Bruce Mills. All rights reserved.
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