Monday 11 April 2016

Kumukahi

Poul Anderson, "Pele" IN Larry Niven, Ed., Man-Kzin Wars IX (New York, 2002), pp. 3-95.

(Not a novel by my 100+ pages rule of thumb, especially since there are blank spaces at the ends of chapters.)

Kumukahi:

the inmost planet of the star, Pele;
ten Jovian masses;
spiraling inward;
temperatures soaring;
atmosphere distended into a 280,000 kilometer ovoid;
storms larger than terrestroid planets;
now orbiting only a million kilometers above the stellar photosphere;
revolving in less than half an Earth day and accelerating;
rotating in fifteen hours, slowed by tidal bulges;
night side flickering with lightnings reflected from planet-sized clouds, flashing with explosions or other atmospheric events;
day side burning, emitting incandescent gasses - some breaking free;
storms pouring along the inner tidal bulge;
a core of metallic hydrogen;
very few heavy elements.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

"Pele" was first pub. in 2001, the year Poul Anderson died, by ANALOG. Just as real world astronomers were beginning to discover more and more planets. Kumukahi reminds me of the "hot Jupiters" I see discussed many times on the CENTAURI DREAMS blog. Indeed Poul Anderson was a master of hard SF!

Sean