Speculating on Planet 4546b... again...

Lonnehart

It's fun for the science oriented mind to speculate on science fiction (while not being annoying by trying to deconstruct the science of that fiction by acting as if it exists in OUR universe). I remember when I made a thread like this long ago, but with the release on its way I figured I'd do it again. Newer players of Subnautica could add more interesting things to the discussion (and I hope the devs have their own as well).

I've always wondered... Why is the larger moon not being torn apart by the planet? It's awfully large in the sky. The other moon never seems to move in the sky nor changes face. I'm guessing that the farther moon is like ours in that it is rotating at the same speed it is revolving around our planet. And it's revolution moves fast enough to keep up with the rotation 4546b.

Also, just thinking. The entirety of Subnautica takes place on a gigantic volcanic crater with the Aurora at the very edge of the crater?

SnailsAttack

The larger moon and 4546B are likely a binary system of planets, although yes they would probably be tearing eachother apart.

As for the smaller moon, I never considered the fact that it could be in geostationary orbit around 4546B, although that doesn't quite explain why it looks flat as a fucking pancake and only appears at night. I think I can leave that discrepancy to a lack of effort on the dev's part, as i'm almost certain the smaller moon is just glued onto the nighttime skybox.

I said this on another thread, but what'd be cool is if the smaller moon orbited the larger moon or orbited around BOTH planets in a figure-8.

and yes the entirety of subnautica takes place on a dormant volcanic crater with the aurora resting near the very edge