Alka

Alka with it's moon Nuk.

The green deserts of Alka.

Alka is a venus like planet in terms of both mass and temperatures as well as atmospheric pressure.Alka posses a chlorine rich atmosphere with lots of chloroflurocarbons(predominantly CFCl3). Since CFCs are very good green house gases they trap most of the heat which reaches it from the star.

It has a small moon Nuk which is so close that even tidal heating becomes an issue.This gives Alka a very hot climate. Due to presence of high levels of chlorine the planet shines with a nice green colour.

## Life

Alka is inhabited by thermophile chemosynthetic,unicellular authotrophs which came there from Auripegia as a result of panspermia.Some organisms form meter high colonies which are called "Green Grubs".

Alkan Polyps, are local fauna which grow on decaying "organic" matter, they feed on the ancient,chemosynthetic, atmospheric and unicellular algae called "Alkan Algae".

## Panspermiation

About 5 billion years ago an asteroid impact on Auripegia triggered this event along with a mass extinction event. The ancestors of alkan lifeforms flew out of the atmosphere due to the impact.Some of them survived as the result of their extremophile and bacterial nature, few of them even survived their long journey to Alka. They became the first lifeforms from Auripegia to travel interplanetary distances. The organisms travelled in pollen-sized lumps, propelled by the photonic pressure exerted by the light of the star, occasionally boosted by flares. After a relatively short journey, the lucky ones arrived at Alka, some of them survived and evolved in accordance to the local climate, however most of them never reached Alka, they were scattered, all the way to the Kuiper belt. Some even have been propellled to small fractions of speed of light and continue through the interstellar medium as potential seeds for planets in other systems.

## Climate and geography

Alka has a typical Venusian climate, however it's unique composition allows for absurd additions.

### Salt fields

Metals in the soil quickly react to the halogen rich atmosphere and form salts. This leads to vast deserts of salts(mostly partially basic). This combined with the acidic atmosphere allows for easy chemosynthesis with little effort,however most of the surface would be immediately neutralized and then acidified.

### Acid puddles

Cl2 and F2 in the atmosphere quickly react with critical surface water to form acids like HCl,HF and HOCl. These acids then dissolve into the puddles acidifying them.

### Variety of clouds

Chlorine doesn't form clouds however it does form greenish wavy patterns, however fluorine, hydrogen fluoride and water do form clouds. Differences in these clouds make them form weird patterns.

### HOCl- Cl2 cycle

Water reacts with atmospheric Chlorine to form HOCl, however this molecule is unstable and eventually decays back into Cl2. Some chemosynthetic life uses this cycle.

### Chlorine falls

Chlorine can turn into a liquid at the correct pressure and temperature however this dark green liquid quickly vaporises as it approaches the surface. This creates misty chlorine falls in the sky when the right conditions are met.

## Trivia

Alka's climate is based on Venus.

The name Alka is a Hindi word meaning "old lady," it siginifies it's relation to Venus.

A planet like Alka cannot be seeded directly by asteroids. They will simply be destoryed during the re-entry.