Life of other worlds: drawings and sketches from one space explorer's travel journal is a series focusing on various other star systems in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Aten-Ra System is a blue star system with five planets, located near the Giza Nebula. Astronomer Dr. Piers Langland, a member of the Unified Interplanetary Exploration Taskforce (UIET), discovered the system and its neighboring nebula. The system received its name due to the fact that it was discovered the year that the Forgotten Tombs were found and unearthed in Egypt. Sadly, it was also the year of the Bombing of the Great Pyramids of Giza by religious fundamentalists. The International Astronomical Union approved the naming of the system after ancient Egyptian deities and the naming of the nebula after the Great Pyramids as a remembrance of the great events of that year.

Life is found on Hathor, Amun and its moon Isis, and two of the three moons of Osiris-Anubis and Horus; however, life beyond Hathor and Amun is only microscopic (it is believed to have travel beyond Hathor and Amun as result of early meteorite impacts). Ancient microfossils have been found on the dead planet of Sokar. The Sokarian fossils resemble life on the moons of Osiris and Amun. This is a system teeming with life. So far Amun is only one of two known gas giants to harbor complex life in a thin upper layer.

Hapi

The first planet in the system: Hapi

Hathor

Hathor (with its moon Thoth in the background)

Hathor is a relatively flat planet with few mountain ranges. Most of the planet is very dry with large desert areas. Large expanses of the surface are covered in great prairies covered in grass-like plants. One species that covers the large spaces actually is one plant that sends out roots underground forming a large megaorganism – one plant can cover hundreds of kilometers. There are no trees as on Earth, large herbaceous plants that resemble the banana trees of Earth create dense “jungles”. The “trees” and the megaorganism plant never occur in the same spot –it seems the two species are constantly battling for space (where the two plants meet there is always a barren “no-man’s-land” between them-it is believed that there is some kind of chemical warfare going on among the two)

Herd animal on Hathor

Large herbaceous tree (similar to a banana tree on Earth)

Large grazing creature (abt 5 meters)

A nocturnal repto-mammal that survives only on nectar of certain flowers and juices of certain fruits.

This creature was always fighting others of the species. The sound of the bony plates crashing together filled the air at every hour. The tail would be used after the head jammed into its opponent.

These little critters were found in the water, in the mud, in the sand, everywhere. And yes, even the trees --or the equivalent of trees.

Something that mostly laid in the mud (note that air is breathed in through hole on top of body)

Osiris

The Moons of Osiris, looking toward Sokar and the Giza Nebula

Amun and its moon Isis

Amun

Many incredible life forms live in the thin stable habitable zone on a gas giant. The food chain of the planet includes large balloon-like carnivores, such as the Cloud Tiger, who consume the smaller and plentiful Kites. Kites themselves consume spores from the many forms of fungus and algae present in the zone.

Kites

Cloud Tiger (genus Aethercetus) captures Kites in a basket it swings through the air. The basket contracts tightly around the Kites and then digests them. The creature floats freely through the habitable zone of the gas giant, regulating its buoyancy to keep itself at the correct altitude. The "tiger" stripes are thought to resemble swarms of Kites causing other Kites to fly toward the Cloud Tiger, thus luring them to their death as lunch for the great floating beast.

Cloud Tiger

There was this creature we called Macy (after the large balloon figures in the Macy's parade). We believed it to be a member of the genus Aethercetus; if so, it is the largest member. It trawled for food with a large "basket" at the bottom. The "bubbles" on the side were young.

There was a carnivorous creature (genus Aethercetus) analogous to the Orcas on Earth. It hunted other members of the Aethercetus genus. We called it the Sky Orca. It seemed to prefer to eat Cloud Tigers. It used the sharp pendulum to ram the Cloud Tigers and deflate them; then released a dissolving agent to melt certain nutritious parts of its prey, which it sucked up through a tube. It did this very quickly as it slowly descended due to the extra weight. Before reaching the point of no return, it jettisoned the carcass of the Cloud Tiger and floated slowly up to a higher altitude.

Sky Orca

Creature we called Macy (after the large balloon figures in the Macy's parade)

Sokar

Sokar and the Giza Nebula

The Giza Nebula

Residing near the Aten-Ra System, the nebula fills the night skies of all the planets of the system. A defining feature of the nebula is its bright monochromatic redness, caused by the abundance of hydrogen. The three bright white dwarfs ( each one named after one of the three pyramids in Giza) are the three brightest points in the nebula. Some believe the vivid red-purple colour of Sokar is due to the capture of nebula hydrogen by the planet. An odd section of the Giza Nebula is separated from the main body and has a bright blue-white cast (see Hathor photo). Scientists believe that the high temperature of this region is caused by the fact that the hydrogen is being consumed in some unknown type of reaction. Some believe that the reaction might someday consume the entire nebula; others believe that it is a localized reaction. It has been put forth by some that the proximity of the "Blue Cloud" to the planetary system invites the question that the reaction is caused by abandoned alien technology. The establishment of a permanent space station (Langland Station UIET) in orbit around Hathor will study the Giza Nebula and its relationship with the Aten-Ra System.

Next in the series : The Sulis Star System