“Pristina”—a realistic, satellite-photo style complete world

[Peter Toth]

Hello Cartographers,

I’ve been working industriously on this project for just over a month, using my 20-year-old Photoshop as well as GIMP and Wilbur, trying to achieve scientific accuracy rather than aesthetic appeal. Despite my relentless efforts to achieve high standards, this map is riddled with glaring errors, especially the rivers flowing through the desert region in one continent. (You will probably find others; if you do, please kindly point them out!) Please note, however, that I’m not aiming for perfection, and sometimes even a determined person has to know when to draw the line.

The tectonics have been very accurately worked out using a tutorial authored by Warlin (thank you so much for this, Warlin.), and the planet attributes are all based on formulas and theory. And I credit the final “satellite photo” image to Arsheesh, whose tutorial helped me paint climates onto greyscale height maps.

The underlying theme of this project involves my dissatisfaction over our ruined, overdeveloped, and overpopulated Earth. Lacking the financial ability or political leverage to salvage what remains, I opted to instead dream about a completely pristine planet that no human has ever set foot on. Naturally, the name evolved to “Pristina;” in fact, it’s so pristine that its geographical features have yet to be named! And because the focus was on world-building accuracy, I’ve neglected cosmetic details such as a border or compass rose. In addition, because my computer lacks the processing power to handle large files, I’ve addressed the problem by making my planet as small as possible, but still large enough to endow appreciable gravity to retain gases and resemble the earth in every other sense.

Please critique and/or enjoy; with your help I hope to make the next project even more realistic.

Peter





Pristina Star Attributes:

Mass: 1.06125 Solar Masses
Metallicity: 0.02175 (1.0876 times Solar)
Lifetime: 8.516 Byr
System Age: 3.915 Byr
Temperature: 5,928 K
Luminosity: 1.2462 Solar
Bolometric Magnitude: 4.50
Absolute Magnitude: 4.65
Radius: 1.0613

Pristina Planet Attributes:

Mass: 0.70424 Earths
Radius: 5,567 km
Density: 5.844 g/cm3
Gravity: 0.92437 g’s
Rotation Period: 20.746 h
Albedo: 0.361
Temperature: 285 K
Distance from star: 1.05788 AU
Period: 1.056200 y
Axial Tilt: 20.625 degrees
Atmospheric Pressure: 1.1147 atm
CO2 Partial Pressure: 0.00019 atm
H2O Partial Pressure: 0.00307 atm

[Falconius]

Even deserts have drainage, though some are so dry it gets obscured by waves of sand. And the Nile of course flows right through the biggest desert on the planet. So I wouldn't worry too much about that. And despite your lack of interest when developing the aesthetic of your world I find it quite visually appealing. Its pretty darn neat, I would suggest that in the future you make the split for the map projection in the middle of that open expanse of ocean instead of through significant landmasses.

[Peter Toth]

Thank you Falconius for all your positive words. I've taken your advice regarding the "splitting" of the map, producing the image included. I believe it looks far better than my first submission.