Pendulum (aka Gliese 1061d)

## PENDULUM

Gliese 1061d is the third planet from its lonely star. Approximately 12 Light Years from the Paradise Lost, Gliese 1061d has come to be known by a different name, Pendulum, since it recently gained a considerable (and mysterious) amount of significance to both the Aequitas Principium and the Exalted Crusade.

A large, tidally locked terrestrial planet that revolves around its star at incredible speeds, Pendulum makes its entire circuit around the precariously close Gliese 1061 in just under 13 Earth Days. It has no day-night cycle whatsoever, as one side of the planet eternally faces its red dwarf star. The sun-facing side of the planet reaches temperatures in excess of 160° Celsius whereas the dark side drops to -80° C.

The proximity to its star makes Pendulum a victim of its intense magnetic field and a deadly shower of solar radiation. Such a world would not likely have been considered a prospect for visitation, much less colonization. However, there is an isolated region of Pendulum that, due to a series of influences, possesses all of the traits vital to the development and survival of organic life.

Known by exoplanetary researchers as the *Gliesean* *Habitable Zone* or *GHZ* (and by many as the more colloquial *Slice of Life*), this region is shielded from the majority of Gliese 1061's horrors by virtue of its unique position on the trailing edge of the world, aiming away from the path of its 13-Earth-Day revolutionary trek at the precise equatorial region where its temperature extremes coalesce into a more habitable average 31° C. The GHZ is essentially a valley, approximately 6,000 kilometers wide and 11,000 km long, shielded between two competing ridges of volcanic mountain ranges (named the Tigris and the Euphrates after the twin rivers of the Fertile Crescent on the Paradise Lost.

The planet's massive, highly active molten-iron core generates a strong magnetic field of its own, and that field is warped in part by the planet's revolutionary speed. Conjectural evidence would suggest that while the planet currently sits dangerously close to its star and is tidally locked, this was not always the case. While Pendulum rotates at the same rate that it revolves around Gliese 1061, its core would seem to rotate at a far faster rate more comparable with the 24-Earth-Hour rotation of the Paradise Lost, and in the opposite direction. These circumstances are highly unusual, and exoplanetary researchers still long to discover how they came to be this way. The proximity and constant strain of tidal forces from its star, coupled with the great mass of the rocky planet in consideration of its relatively small star, may be factors in this strange outcome. However, the end result is a livable Slice of Life where one would least suspect to find it.

There is an active ecology on Pendulum, with unique specimens of fawn and flora, as well as at least one example of exoplanetary intelligent life, Researchers have dubbed these creatures Glieseans.

MORE TO COME!

Last Updated 10/22/2023

External Resources:

https://www.stellarcatalog.com/stars/gliese-1061

https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/overview/GJ%201061%20d#planet\_GJ-1061-d\_collapsible

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/7593/gj-1061-d/

https://exoplanet.eu/catalog/gj\_1061\_d--7174/#planet-detail-info