A tour of the system
One continuous reel across five worlds: E-geohistory from orbit to the valley floor, Genesis's coast and canyon country, alpine ridges in cloud, Umber's summit snow and violet forest, the rainforest, down through Vitriol's acid deck, Vesper's craters at low sun, and an eclipse.
Geohistory
A living planet shaped by deep time: rain-cut valleys, cloud decks, and forests that follow the climate from desert to alpine.
Seen from orbit
A cloud-streaked world with wide oceans and a continent of warm brown and green.
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Ten kilometres up
Broken cloud drifts over dark land and water, with the curve of the horizon above.
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One kilometre
Forested ridges roll to the horizon under a soft, overcast sky.
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Over the forest
An unbroken carpet of conifers, dotted with clearings and the orange of turning trees.
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From a hundred metres
Dark green forest stretches to a low ridge under a busy sky of small clouds.
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Streamside
Wet, dark rock, orange lichen and bright grass sit close to the camera, with a fern frond in the corner.
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The cliff face
Bands of rock rise two hundred metres above a wooded valley floor.
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Valley fog
Morning fog lies in the folds of the hills while the ridges stand clear above it.
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Clouds, time-lapse
Clouds build, shear and dissolve over the landscape, the sky rendered in fast-forward.
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Lake district from 1 km
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Mountain lake
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Pond at 2 m
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The meadow
Tall grass sways among slim trunks, with a lichen-covered boulder at the edge of the clearing.
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The meadow, low sun
The same clearing in late light, its grass and leaves glowing warm and green.
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Grass in the wind
Blades bend and ripple in the breeze across the clearing.
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Shafts under the deck
Light falls through the gaps in a broken cloud deck and draws bright columns in the haze below.
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Ice halos
The ice left over from yesterday's thunderstorms bends the morning sun into rainbow-edged rings, 22 and 46 degrees around it.
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Sundogs
Flat ice plates falling face-down throw a bright mock sun beside the low morning sun, on its 22-degree ring.
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Northern lights
Green curtains of light ripple overhead and converge toward the magnetic zenith on a cold tundra night.
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The oval from orbit
From 400 km the auroral oval traces glowing green arcs across the planet's dark side and along its limb.
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The dry side
Eroded rust-coloured hills push out from beneath a low layer of cloud.
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Desert plain
A flat expanse of rippled red sand runs to a distant, low ridge.
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The high country
Pale, wind-scoured slopes rise into thin air, with a cloud deck far below.
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Above the cloud line
Wisps of mist cling to a pale summit ridge and its dark shadowed flank.
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Last light on the ranges
With the sun on the horizon, the basins fall into shadow and the haze over them goes dark and clear.
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Glacier country, 10 km
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Valley in late summer, 100 m
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Valley in midwinter, 100 m
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Winter range, 10 km
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The forest from above
Dense conifers climb a long hillside, dotted with ochre clearings.
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Into the forest
Slim, leaning trees catch shafts of low sun above a mossy floor.
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Morning mist
The low sun breaks through the crowns in long shafts of light that hang in the damp forest air.
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Umber
An alien world of rust-red soil, where thorny, berry-laden plants replace the familiar forests.
Umber from orbit
A rust-toned planet with a thin veil of cloud and a pale river of dust across the surface.
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Ten kilometres up
Pale dunes and cracked, silvery ridges lie under a dim, dark-blue sky.
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The red forest from above
A closed, dark violet canopy of shade plants, built to catch a dim star's light, covers the rust-red ground to the horizon.
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Snow on the summit
A fresh fall of snow, day 27 of umber's year, lies over the summit's rock, its ribs and hollows still showing through.
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Vitriol
A scalding world under a sky of sulfuric-acid cloud, where dark, waxy plants cling to the cooler heights.
Vitriol from orbit
A pale, veiled planet: an unbroken deck of acid cloud hides everything below.
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Above the acid clouds
The sulfuric-acid deck stretches away like a cream-white sea under a dark sky.
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The living heights
Dark, cushioned growth carpets a volcanic ridge high above the hazy, scalding lowlands.
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Among the acid-garden
Hooped stems hung with sulfur-yellow bulbs rise over black-red rosettes and purple-black grass.
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Down through the deck
From orbit through the acid cloud and the haze below, down onto a vegetated volcanic ridge.
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Vesper
A small airless moon, grey and silent, its dust pocked by craters of every age under a black sky.
Ten kilometres above Vesper
Craters large and small scatter across the grey plain to a sharp, close horizon, with no air to soften the view.
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One kilometre above Vesper
Low sunlight pools black shadows inside fresh craters, while older ones have slumped into gentle hollows.
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On Vesper's surface
Fine grey dust stretches away, broken by a fresh crater whose rim throws a knife-edged shadow.
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Vesper's ground units
The ground of Vesper from orbit: its units, from flooded plains to cratered high ground, each with its own brightness and texture.
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Vesper, intercrater plains
Intercrater plains: old plains between the craters, cratered to saturation.
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Vesper, aged ejecta
Older crater ejecta: the rays have faded, but the blanket around the crater is still a little brighter and blockier than the plains.
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Cronus
An icy moon inside a vast ring system, every ringlet and gap traced from a real spacecraft's measurements of Saturn.
The ring system
Pale bands and dark gaps circle the icy globe, which throws its own shadow across the rings behind it.
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Above the rings
Thousands of fine ringlets sweep past below, broken by the dark gap that splits the bright rings in two.
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Rings over the horizon
From the frozen surface the rings rise as a great arch, their ringlets fading into the dark inner edge.
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Cronus's ground units
The ground of Cronus from orbit: its units, from flooded plains to cratered high ground, each with its own brightness and texture.
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Cronus, ridged plains
Ridged plains: the ice shell cracked and refrozen into ridges, like the plains of Europa.
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Cronus, aged ejecta
Aged ejecta: the blankets of younger craters, still a little brighter than the plains they cover, under a low sun.
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Cronus, flood plains
Flood plains: icy lava ponded in the low ground, smooth and lightly cratered beside the old cratered plains.
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Genesis
A sun-baked canyon world of layered sandstone, wind-carved arches and a bright, glittering sea.
Seen from orbit
Land, sea and a thin blue atmosphere curve away beneath the dark of space.
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Ten kilometres up
A vast badland of ridges and dry washes stretches to a hazy horizon, with clouds drifting below.
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One kilometre
Stepped mesas and deep side canyons open up below, with a bank of cloud above.
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Aerial view
Sandstone terraces and steep-walled gorges cut through the plateau, seen from a low pass.
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From a hundred metres
The canyon rim drops away to sunlit benches and dark, shaded cliffs.
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Ten metres above the rock
Broken ledges of layered stone run away toward a far mesa.
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Ground level
Weathered boulders and dry tufts of grass sit in warm, open desert light.
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Rock formations
A lone, rounded tower of stone stands over a maze of eroded ledges.
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The arch
A natural stone arch frames a pool of still water beneath it.
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Canyon rim
A steep bank of dark, weathered ground and scattered grass tufts falls toward the canyon.
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Talus slope
Loose scree spills from the crest, with the canyon walls layered in the distance.
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Orbit, low sun
The sun grazes the horizon and the atmosphere glows, the day fading out over the coast.
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Ten kilometres up, low sun
Long shadows pool in the valleys as the low sun rakes across the ridgelines.
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Ground level, low sun
Dusk on the rim: dark rock, sparse grass, and the last light on a passing cloud.
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Two suns
A second, smaller star joins the first, and the whole landscape shifts to a paler, doubled light.
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Bunch grass
Pale clumps of grass dot a slope of red earth beneath the cliffs.
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The coast from above
Sunlight flares across the water where the land ends in a ragged, many-fingered shore.
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Coast at dawn
Low, hazy light turns the sea to hammered silver against a bare limestone shore.
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The open sea
Dark swells roll toward a pale horizon, their crests breaking white in the glare.
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The open sea, moving
Waves surge and foam under a glowing horizon, seen just above the surface.
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Two suns, low light
Time-lapse over the badlands: one sun sinks in the west while a second star rises in the east, and the shadows sweep round as each takes over the light.
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Orbit to ground
One continuous descent from space, through the atmosphere, down to the stones of the desert floor.
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Under the sea, 2 m, caustics
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Under the sea, 10 m
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Snell's window from 5 m
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Seagrass meadow, 8 m
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After the rains
The canyon rock darkens under a film of rainwater, its wet faces catching the sky.
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Shadow of a moon
From orbit, the moon's shadow falls on the planet as a soft dark spot, the ground beneath it in totality.
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Totality, the corona
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The neighbours overhead
From orbit, a long exposure of the black sky above: the moon, a red planet and a grey world, each where the orbits put it on that date.
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The moon, gibbous
Through a narrow lens the moon is a lit sphere, its shadowed side turned away from the sun.
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Total eclipse, time-lapse
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Braudor
A generated world: temperate continents, from ice caps to rainforest.
Braudor from orbit
The whole world: seas, continents and their climates from space.
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Braudor from ten kilometres
The land below, its biomes giving way to each other over the relief.
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Braudor, polar tundra
The polar tundra of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, boreal forest
The boreal forest of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, cold desert
The cold desert of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, steppe
The steppe of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, temperate grassland
The temperate grassland of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, temperate forest
The temperate forest of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, temperate rainforest
The temperate rainforest of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, warm temperate forest
The warm temperate forest of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, sclerophyll scrub
The sclerophyll scrub of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, hot desert
The hot desert of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Braudor, tropical rainforest
The tropical rainforest of Braudor: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen
A generated world: a warm ocean world whose islands span tundra to tropical forest.
Verlen from orbit
The whole world: seas, continents and their climates from space.
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Verlen from ten kilometres
The land below, its biomes giving way to each other over the relief.
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Verlen, polar tundra
The polar tundra of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, cold desert
The cold desert of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, steppe
The steppe of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, temperate grassland
The temperate grassland of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, temperate forest
The temperate forest of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, temperate rainforest
The temperate rainforest of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, warm temperate forest
The warm temperate forest of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, sclerophyll scrub
The sclerophyll scrub of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, hot desert
The hot desert of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, thorn scrub
The thorn scrub of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, savanna
The savanna of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, tropical dry forest
The tropical dry forest of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Verlen, tropical rainforest
The tropical rainforest of Verlen: its own plants, grown from the world's lineages for this climate.
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Selene
The Moon's twin: bright cratered highlands and dark lava seas, every unit from fresh rays to cold polar traps.
Selene's ground units
The ground of Selene from orbit: its units, from flooded plains to cratered high ground, each with its own brightness and texture.
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Selene from ten kilometres
Ten kilometres above Selene: the edge of its flooded plains against the older cratered ground.
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Selene, intercrater plains
Intercrater plains: old plains between the craters, cratered to saturation.
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Selene, cratered uplands
Cratered uplands: the oldest high ground, craters on top of craters.
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Selene, flood plains
Flood plains: low ground flooded from below (lava on rock worlds, slushy ice on icy moons), burying the older craters.
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Rime
A Ganymede-like ice moon: dark, ancient cratered ice and younger bright plains where slushy ice flooded the lows.
Rime's ground units
The ground of Rime from orbit: its units, from flooded plains to cratered high ground, each with its own brightness and texture.
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Rime from ten kilometres
Ten kilometres above Rime: the edge of its flooded plains against the older cratered ground.
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Rime, dark terrain
The old dark terrain: ancient ice under a dusty, reddish lag, cratered to saturation, between the younger bright lanes.
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Rime, aged ejecta
Older crater ejecta: the rays have faded, but the blanket around the crater is still a little brighter and blockier than the plains.
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Rime, flood plains
Flood plains: low ground flooded from below (lava on rock worlds, slushy ice on icy moons), burying the older craters.
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Rime, polar regolith
High-latitude ground: soil near the poles, weathered less by the stellar wind and so a little brighter.
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Tovik
An icy moon under an orange star: dark cratered ice with smooth plains flooded from below.
Tovik's ground units
The ground of Tovik from orbit: its units, from flooded plains to cratered high ground, each with its own brightness and texture.
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Tovik from ten kilometres
Ten kilometres above Tovik: the edge of its flooded plains against the older cratered ground.
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Tovik, dark plains
The dark cratered plains: old ice under a dark lag, crater upon crater, as on Callisto.
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Tovik, flood plains
Flood plains: low ground flooded from below (lava on rock worlds, slushy ice on icy moons), burying the older craters.
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Mars
The red planet: bright dust-mantled provinces against dark basaltic sand plains, under a thin, dusty sky.
Mars from 30,000 km
Mars from afar: its bright, dusty provinces and dark sand plains, the albedo markings telescopes have mapped for centuries.
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Dust and dark sand
From orbit: the edge of a dark basaltic sand plain against the bright, dust-mantled ground, its contact ragged like a coastline.
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Mars from ten kilometres
Ten kilometres above Mars: layered mesas and scarps, the bright dust giving way to darker sand under the haze.
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