Narath

max: 70°C (substellar)

**Narath** is a habitable Kerbin-like planet orbiting Proksimus Kirbani. It's known to be an eyeball planet, meaning it sports a big desert at the day side and ice on the nightside.

## In-game Description

*"Narath is a surprisingly habitable world that managed to form around Proksimus Kirbani. Although its biosphere is extremely limited due to it being tidally locked to its star, life has nonetheless managed to survive along the terminators, creating red temperate zones visible from space. Many scientists are in agreement that life around Narath is extremely exotic compared to on Kerbin, making Narath a prime destination for both scientists and colonists."*

## Discovery

Narath’s discovery is regarded as a historic discovery. Prior to the discovery, many scientists were unsure as to whether or not a planet could exist in the habitable zone of a red dwarf and stay habitable. However, they found Narath when they observed a slight wobble in Proksimus Kirbani’s orbit. It wasn’t for many years until new technology allowed for scientists to believe the planet may have life.

## Physical Characteristics

Narath is well known among scientists for being the half-baked planet of Kerbin-like worlds. While one side of the planet is covered in a harsh desert, the other side is covered in a thick sheet of ice. This nature is due to Narath being tidally locked to Proksimus Kirbani, meaning only one hemisphere faces towards the star at all times. Narath’s tidal locking to Proximus Kirbani is the main controller in its climate and the life on it, as well.

The planet is divided into 5 main regions on the surface: the central desert, the east temperate zone, the west temperate zone, the hemispheric ice cap, and the seas.

The central desert of Narath is one of the more inhospitable places on the planet. The region is not only exposed to Proksimus Kirbani’s harsh light at all times, but is also constantly exposed to high-speed winds from Narath’s seasonal central storm.

Narath’s hemispheric ice cap is the largest feature on Narath and takes up all of the night side and much of the twilight zone. Because half of Narath always faces Proksimus Kirbani, the other half is always dark. This leads to the ice cap being the most inhospitable place to life, due to the cold temperatures, the lack of sunlight, and the coverage of ice, preventing exposure of minerals plants on Narath need to live. However, life is still possible in some areas. In the twilight zones at the edges of the ice caps, many species take refuge to avoid predators or take advantage of unused living space. Some scientists believe that deep below the ice cap is a subsurface ocean kept warm by vents, with environments that behave similar to Kerbin’s ocean floors. Most scientists agree that the ice cap covers not only the ocean but also frozen continents that could have once been habitable. If Narath’s tectonics continue to move, those frozen continents may move back into the light and become habitable.

The seas are much harsher than Kerbin’s seas. Because much of the water on the planet is frozen on the ice cap, the water left over is much more saline than on Kerbin. The seas are supplied with fresh water from Narath’s central storm and any meltwater from the ice cap. Narath’s aquatic geography is split into 3 different regions: The Karbis Sea, the oceans, and the lakes.

Narath’s lakes are constantly supplied with meltwater from the ice cap, allowing them to stay less saline than the oceans. The oceans work to move water between the cold ice cap and the hot desert, allowing for a constant current. The Karbis Sea, however, is mostly locked in the central desert, making it much warmer. It also is much more saline than the oceans, making the sea almost sterile to life, especially any life on Kerbin.

The most hospitable areas are the two bands of red on the terminator. These regions, called twilight zones or simply the terminator, is cool enough to support life while still receiving a fair amount of light. The east and west terminators are very different in geography and habitability. The west band is almost entirely locked from any large bodies of water, making it much drier. The area is much more similar to grasslands on Kerbin. Most of the water on the west terminator comes from meltwater or rainfall, either from the mountains that border it or the central storm. The east terminator, however, has an ocean that passes through it, creating a variety of wetland environments. Some regions are home to subtropical forests that can rival Kerbin’s diversity.

## Atmosphere and Climate

The atmosphere of Narath is similar to Kerbin’s. The first major difference is the lower concentration of oxygen, only being about half the percentage as on Kerbin. This is because Narath’s oxygen producing organisms are clustered in small areas, but their photosynthetic process is so efficient they’re able to disperse much more oxygen than Kerbin plants, allowing for a decent amount of it in the atmosphere. Narath’s atmosphere is also thinner, being a bit more than half Kerbin’s sea-level pressures. The atmosphere is a different color than on Kerbin due to the red light of Proksimus Kirbani. It makes Narath’s normally blue atmosphere appear more of a greyish purple, adding to the planet’s exotic nature.

Narath has a unique climate for a Kerbin-like world. The entirety of the planet’s climate is controlled by Proksimus Kirbani and its tidal lock to the star. The fact that one side is always in heat and the other is kept cold and dark creates a large temperature difference that drives strong wind currents. Every now and then, the wind currents form in a way to where a large central storm will form and obscure Narath’s central desert. After several thousand years, Narath will enter a “calm” phase, when the storm dissipates and the skies clear. Narath is currently in a calm phase, which is expected to last a couple thousand years before a long storm phase begins again.

## Life

Life on Narath has to deal with many hardships to avoid a mass extinction. First of all, it is restricted to the terminator, often referred to as the “twilight zone” due to the fact that Proksimus Kirbani hangs on the horizon constantly, because of the tidal locking of Narath. It also needs to put up with the occasional blast of radiation coming from Proksimus Kirbani. Another thing it has to deal with is the dim light output. To put up with that, vegetation on the surface has developed a dark red hue to soak up as much light as possible. Plants near the edge of the twilight zone are almost black to absorb as much light as possible.

Most of the life on Narath exists on the land, as the seas were found to be very saline compared to the seas on Kerbin. For this reason, most sea life usually expends a large amount of metabolic energy on ion pumping solutions to decrease internal salinity. Aquatic creatures are mostly concentrated in rivers and lakes, as well as meltwater on the icecaps where salt concentrations are significantly lower. In the deep seas, photosynthetic life is dominated by red and black algae, as well as plant species that have returned to the ocean. Animals that live in the open ocean have adapted to strong currents caused by large temperature differences between the hot continental coast and the cold ice-capped edge of the oceans.

Most land-based life on Narath is clustered in the two bands along the terminator of Narath, either in the grasslands or the savannas. The fact that the life is in two separate regions on Narath, on the opposite side of each other, indicates that the life may be radically different to the life on the other side of Narath. Most of the life seems to be mobile, as even some of the larger plants have been observed in motion. Most plant species on the planet appear to be direct descendants of ancient animal-like creatures that eventually gained the trait of photosynthesis, thus explaining their animal-like qualities (such as blood, tissues, and for some species, the ability to move), meaning that early life on Narath depended on photosynthetic algae and chemosynthesizers before the advent of plant-like species. There are two general types of plants on Narath: The heat-loving widespread red plants and the rarer, low-light black plants. Because there are no natural seasons to spur a world-wide growing season, many plant species synchronize their life cycles through wind-carried pheromones that signal their growing seasons. Because different species have different pheromone cycles, it's always spring somewhere on Narath.

Animals species on Narath are drastically more diverse than the plant species on the planet, and any animal kingdom on any other planet. Because of the harsh environment, extinctions of species, especially animals, are much more common on Narath than anywhere else. However, large doses of radiation from Proksimus Kirbani allows for fast mutations, meaning any ecological niches that are left empty will be filled in relatively quickly. This has led to Narath having the most diverse and complex classification system from both past and present. However, Narath isn’t seen as filled with life due to the limited habitability and common extinctions on the world.

There are four distinct biomes for land animals on Narath: two on the east and west terminator, one in the substellar desert, and one in the sunlit rim of the hemispheric icecap. The east belt sports a larger amount of rainfall than the west, allowing it to sustain larger rainforests and large forms of megafauna. The animals here are typically six-legged and most are able to climb the large plants. The west belt sports smaller levels of rainfall, and so plants there have a variety of ways to prevent water loss. Animals in this region are more predatory, and so many of them have a four legged (tetrapod) body plan to aid in better agility and speed. It is thought that these animals have a different lineage than those on the eastern terminator. The desert biosphere is composed of a mix of flora and fauna that migrated from both the eastern and western terminator, but adapted to harsh desert conditions. Plants here have large non-photosynthesizing leaves that have a sole purpose of radiating heat away from the plant itself, as well as many other methods to prevent heat buildup. Animals here typically only roam under cloud cover, while living underground the rest of the time. The flora and fauna that live in the tundra are even more tough, having to deal with low light levels and freezing cold temperatures. Most animals species in the tundra only spend a part of their lives there, when they are raising young away from predators. Animals that spend their entire lives in the tundra have been noted either to have large eyes or rely on echolocation to cope with the low light conditions. Some scientists think that there may even be a fifth biosphere in the form of hydrothermal vent communities at the dark side of the planet, but while there is an enormous amount of proof this has yet to be confirmed.

Multiple observations have suggested that when Proksimus Kirbani flares up, a lot of the life will seek refuge either underground or in the seas. As one scientist says, "...the whole world just goes silent for a few hours. The plants fold up, and anything that can move would either bury itself or jump into the seas. When Proksimus Kirbani calms down, everything comes back, and the world is active again".

## Moons

Narath was previously thought to have a moon, though this theory has now been proven false.

## Biomes

* Icy Lowlands
* Icy Midlands
* Icy Highlands
* Karbis Sea
* Oceans
* Lakes
* Rivers
* Habitable Lowlands
* Habitable Midlands
* Habitable Highlands
* Desert Lowlands
* Desert Midlands
* Desert Highlands
* Rift Valley
* Mountains

## Trivia

* Narath is based on a habitable version of Proxima b.