PAART'S MOON - TAAF

THE BIRTH OF TAAF

During the formation of the Volar System, protoplanets wandered all around Vol, it used to be a very extensive system, spanning over 30 astronomical units from Vol - but the orbital instability of the gas giants made them swing each other around the system. During these planetary migrations, other planets were ejected while also triggering a period of great collisions.

During this epoch, Paart were in co-orbital configuration with two other minor planets aside from dozens of large asteroids. These co-orbital planets were shepherded by Paart over the course of thousands of years, until they collided with each other very close to our main planet.

This offset impact, merged and broke the planets core apart into 3 major blobs of metal, and a million pieces of their mantles were sprayed away - the result was that the material started to orbit Paart at the right distances for a couple more hundred million years, giving the planet a temporary record-breaking number of moons. Taaf which was the densest of all, ejected the smaller one, and de-orbited the second largest moon - which was shortly ground to dust and meteorites by it's gravity.

The fallen moon, had great portions of iron, and it's mass has been incorporated in the planet's mantle and core ever since.

how it would have happened

This event happened at around 60 thousand kilometers from Paart, and as a consequence, Taaf formed not so far away at about 49,5 thousand kilometers from Paart.

Paart and it's moon are nothing alike to say the least, it is probable that it once had active volcanism as that would explain the large mare on it's surface, and the presence of strongly magnetized rocks - but is pretty much dead inside by now.

The vastly different metallic proportions between Taaf and the Moon, Taaf is ~1,5x denser and than Earth's Moon because of it's origin as part of the inner material of Mercury-sized former planets of the Vol System, whereas Earth's is more likely mantle/crust material.

Paart's moon and Earth's Moon side by side

Mass
26,08 sextillion kg
(0,03x Earth's)

(2,44x Moon's)

Mean Diameter

4.061,74 km
(0,319x Earth's)

(1,185x Moon's)

Avg. Density
5,1g/cm³
(0,92x Earth's)

 

Surface Gravity
2,90 m/s²
 (0,296x Earth's)

 

Mean Composition
 70% metals ; 30% silicates
surface is covered in silicates and titanium/aluminum compounds

Atmosphere: Thin/Exosphere, pressure is ~12,7mPa

H², He, CO², O2, CO, SO², CH4, N², NH4, Ca+, Na+, and K+ traces.

Internal Activity

Geologically dead by 3900 PMA

Paart-Taaf distance when they've formed (to scale)  

 

Taaf orbited Paart every 11 hours, 53min, and 48 seconds when it formed. It quickly became tidally-locked after 1,5 Myr.

Taaf also does drift away from Paart at a rate of (Orbit radius = 8*PMA^0.195), at 3900 PMA it orbits at ~40 Earth radii. 

Paart-Taaf distance by the Cambrian period (to scale)

Paart's rotation rate in hours can be defined at any point by (4*PMA^0.182).