> If you mean o.k. in terms of scientific accuracy - yes, it is, in fact,
> gas giants in Earth-like orbits whose moons (if large enough) could
> support life already have been discovered, for example:
> http://www.jtwinc.com/planettour.asp?StarCatID=normal&PlanetID=210

OW this is absolutely amazing!  A web site giving descriptions of all the
known and suspected planets.  I started checking out the site and was very
surprised to find this:
"http://www.jtwinc.com/planettour.asp?StarCatID=normal&PlanetID=14" which
looks too similar to my work, the 16 Cygni B B.

And I meant, "OK as in mixing POV-Ray with another rendering software?"  I'm
sure the "scientific" accuracy is impossible to determine.

>
> But, in such an orbit, a gas giant probably would look different than
> Saturn - less hazy because of its higher temperature, and with white
> clouds of water droplets/water ice crystals rather than brown-yellowish
> frozen hydrocarbons; towards the equator the latitudinally banded clouds
> gradually would give way to deep blue cloudless atmosphere.

I saw some descriptions on gas planets being more hazy when they are far
away and very bright when being close to the sun.  On earth, I think it is
a bit different... very clear on cold days and hazy on hot days...
(Yesterday we went to Galveston, and it was hot and hazy.)  I think water
acts oppositely in many ways.

So... this might be the description of my work....

This ringed planet, with its satellite, makes an eliptical orbit around the
sun.  Life flourishes on the satellite, and as the planet and satellite
approach perihelion, water from below the surface begins to swell, causing
the atmosphere to be hazy and cloudy, the atmosphere may become slightly
thicker as well.  At perihelion, a complete overcast protects the surface
from searing heat, which may last only a few weeks.  Afterward, the
planet/satellite drift further and further away from the sun.  Water falls
out of the atmosphere, usually in the form of rain.  Upon approaching
aphelion, the life satellite moves toward hibernation; snow and ice may
cover the surface.  Hibernation can last several months during the Aphelion
cycle.

From: Thomas de Groot

>> Pretty, but they're going to crash into each other pretty soon.
>>
>Torn apart, before crashing into each other, probably.
>Pretty indeed, but I have some misgivings about the absence of a terminator
>on the blue planet... or what? There is something strange in the whole
>setting of sun+ringplanet+blueplanet that gives me the feeling that they do
>not belong together...

I thought about that... the "Roc"? force... uhm.. the force that sounds like
"Rock", describes how a planet behaves when it approaches a bigger
planet... such as breaking apart.  And I'm wondering if Io is borderline to
breaking up, being so close to Jupiter.  Thomas, what is "absence of a
terminator on the blue planet"?

From: Christoph Hormann

> Hmm - does Terragen support accurately curved planet surfaces?  The
> curvature in your scene seems minimal so i am not sure.

Uhm... sortof.... there's an optional switch that doesn't work that great.
Terragen has its limitations, and I tried to maximize what I'm able to
do... I did set all the settings equal, such as pitch, bank, heading....
relative heading of the sun on Terragen matches the heading of the sun in
POV-Ray.  The Terragen has 2 main layers, each rendered in 2 different
versions of Terragen.  I did the clouds in v 0.8.11, and the surface in
0.9.19.  I think the planet size is set to the size of earth.  And meter
point spacing is about 200 meters per data point.  I also matched the Zoom
magnification and the perspective type, and simulated the coordinates to
match.  Anything that still doesn't seem right after that, is Terragen's
fault.  However, I noticed 3 things that make it hard to tell if it's
right...  1: shadow angle of Saturn (yes I used the Saturn map), 2: tilt of
Saturn's rings, 3: and the shadow of clouds cast onto the planet.

I'm hoping some day to do the planet surface in POV-Ray.

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