Guide To Building Realistic Habitable Planets [Outdated]

Fancy a planet or two with lush forests and vast oceans? Interested in the prospect of a second Earth? To terraform a barren heap of rock and dust to a world teeming with life involves far more factors than to simply add water to a planet's composition, and is of greater complexity than what it seems. This guide will walk you through the various ingredients that a habitable world is composed of, detail the process of how they may be created in Universe Sandbox ², and dispel some common misconceptions surrounding the components of planetary habitability.

INTRODUCTION

With the ability to mould the cosmos at your will, Universe Sandbox ² holds countless possibilities and potential. One of its most prominent core features is the terraforming of desolate, dead planets into a second Earth marked by the footprints of life.

Creating a habitable planet doesn't seem too difficult a task. Choose a star, plonk down a rocky planet in its habitable zone, add an atmosphere and some water and we've succeeded, haven't we? Not quite. There are far more factors than you might initially suspect responsible for determining whether a planet is realistically suitable for life. The word "realistic" has been stressed because Universe Sandbox ² uses simplified models for determining a planet's habitability and so it is relatively easy to create a planet that seems habitable according to the game's calculations, but really isn't. To build a true habitable planet, we must incorporate factors that affect habitability in our real universe into the simulation, based on scientific studies. This is what this guide aims to teach you to do.

Taking these aspects into consideration, this guide will focus on the following areas:
1. Outline and explanation of the factors that influence the habitability of a planet.
2. A step-by-step walkthrough of creating a realistic habitable planet in Universe Sandbox ².
3. Common questions and misconceptions regarding the conditions for habitability.

STEP 1: CHOOSING A STAR

The foundation to any system with a habitable world is a suitable star. Not only does it provide the heat to maintain optimum temperatures for life to thrive, but its energy is also vital for processes like photosynthesis and supporting the base of the food web.

The Science

Not all stars are friendly for the prospects of life. Generally speaking, the range of stars that may be suitable for the development of habitable planets is between 0.5 solar masses to 1.4 solar masses. In other words, stars capable of supporting habitable planets have masses between half the mass of the Sun and slightly less than one-and-a-half masses of the Sun.

There is a multitude of reasons for why more or less massive stars are not optimum for the development of life.

• Stars beyond 1.4 solar masses do not live long enough for complex life to evolve on a planet. They also emit more energetic radiation than our Sun, which can damage the DNA of life that does develop, rendering it unable to survive. Massive stars could house planets that have simple life, but complex forms and civilisations are unlikely to emerge.
  
• Stars less than 0.5 solar masses can live trillions of years but are often found to be volatile and frequently throw off massive, powerful stellar flares. The radiation within these flares is also a detriment to the development of life. Flare stars tend to quieten down 1.2 billion years after their formation. If you insist on putting a habitable planet around such a small star, it would be wise to increase its age. Planets around these stars are also likely to be tidally locked. Life would face the challenge of both an inferno on one side and a deep freeze on the other.

Doing It In-Game

1. Create a new simulation.
   
2. Add > Random Main Sequence Star. Alternatively, Add > Random Known Star. Select a star and place it in the simulation.
3. Click star > Open object properties > Overview > Age. First set the age of the star to 0. This will prevent any sudden "Nova Remnant" situations due to increasing the mass of a small, but old star. Since more massive stars have shorter lifespans, if you don't set the age to 0 and proceed to change the mass, you may end up with a nova.
   
4. Overview > Mass. Change the mass such that it lies between 0.5 and 1.4 solar masses.
   
5. Overview > Age. Now you can adjust the age of the star to a number you are comfortable with.
   
6. Overview > Calculated Radius. Switch this off and on again. It allows the star to update to the correct size in accordance with current game models.

STEP 2: PLACEMENT & ORBIT OF PLANET

Now that we have selected and placed a star, the next step is to determine where to place a planet to provide a foundation and foothold for life to develop.

The Science

The habitable zone is a region around every star where liquid water may exist on a planet's surface. Water is one of the essential ingredients for life as we know it. Hence, it is not surprising that habitable planets should be placed within the habitable zone of its star.

In Universe Sandbox ², the habitable zone is split into three colours—red, green and blue. While all three are part of the whole habitable zone, a planet may not be habitable if it orbits within the red or blue zone. Venus is a hellish world and orbits our Sun in the red zone of the Sun's habitable region. Likewise, Mars orbits close to the blue zone of the Sun's habitable region and is a frigid world. It's not impossible to create a habitable planet within these two boundary areas, but it is more difficult. The optimum placement for a habitable planet would somewhere in the green zone.

Now, we must assign an orbit of this planet. It is important to note that habitable planets must have fairly circular orbits to avoid large temperature variations. In the "Motion" tab of the planet's properties, "Eccentricity" is the parameter that defines how circular an orbit is. Zero eccentricity is a perfect circle. Therefore, the closer to zero this value is, the better it would be for the prospects of life. I would not recommend exceeding an eccentricity of 0.1 for the planet.

Other orbital parameters like inclination and argument of periapsis exist but do not significantly influence the life likelihood, and so there isn't much need to explain them. Feel free to play around with those and see for yourself. Eccentricity is the only parameter we really do need to worry about.

Doing It In-Game

1. View > Habitable. Turn this option on to display the habitable zone around the star.
   
2. Add > Random Rocky Planet. Select a planet and place it somewhere in the green area of the habitable zone to orbit the star.
   
3. Click planet > Open object properties > Motion > Eccentricity. Input a value less than 0.1. It's fine to leave it as 0, but keep in mind no orbit is a perfect circle in the real universe.

STEP 3: ADJUSTING THE MASS

The Science

The optimal range for the mass of a habitable planet is between about 0.6 Earth masses and 6 Earth masses. There are a number of reasons why this is so, but the main ones include the following.

• Planets below 0.6 Earth masses do not have the mass to hold onto a significant atmosphere, which is imperative to supporting life. Their interiors also cool down much more rapidly than Earth and are likely to be geologically dead after a billion or so years. Active geology is one of the requirements in developing a magnetic field, which will be explored in the next section. There is some ongoing debate as to what the lower limit of a habitable planet's mass is. Some scientists say it's around 0.3 Earth masses. Others think it is much higher, at 0.8 Earth masses. Therefore, the limit I have placed in this guide is a rough approximation.
  
• Planets above 6 Earth masses enter a transitional stage between rocky planets and mini gas giants. These planets are likely to have thick atmospheres or deep, global oceans. Both these factors do not favour the development of complex life. Additionally, civilisations requires a solid ground to arise.

Doing It In-Game

1. Click planet > Open object properties > Overview > Mass. Change the mass of the planet placed down earlier to a value between 0.6 and 6 Earth masses, if it isn't already.

STEP 4: DAY LENGTH & MAGNETIC FIELD

The importance of rotational period or day length for a planet to be habitable cannot be overstated.

The Science

A relatively short day-night cycle allows for minimal temperature differences between the day and night side of the planet. If hundreds of days or years are required for a planet to complete a full rotation, the issues this will cause would not be dissimilar to the case of a tidally locked planet or a planet with a high eccentricity. Day and night would become exceptonally long and the temperature variations would be extreme. It's not a good idea to place the hurdles of a frigid night side and a burning day side for life to adapt to.

There is one more reason why shorter days are desired in habitable planets—the development of a magnetic field. Magnetic fields protect the planet from charged particles in stellar winds and cosmic rays. If a planet didn't have a magnetic field or it was too weak, the charged particles would strip away the atmosphere. Not only does life require sufficient atmospheric pressure to survive, but atmospheres also contain the means to block harmful radiation from the star, such as an ozone layer. Without magnetic fields, the prospect of an ozone layer being retained by the planet is brought into question.

What does day length have to do with this? Well, the current accepted understanding of magnetic field generation is called the dynamo theory. To put it simply, rocky planets generate a magnetic field through convection currents in a molten core of liquid metals like iron. We discussed earlier that planets with masses below 0.6 Earth masses are unlikely to retain a molten core, and so they cannot develop a magnetic field. But supposing we do have a suitable planet, it must still rotate fast enough so that the interaction between the molten metals and its spin is sufficient to create a field.

Doing It In-Game

Changing day length:

1. Click planet > Open object properties > Overview > Rotational Period.
   
2. Input a value between 6 hours and 25 days for the planet's rotation. There is no strict rule here as to how fast the planet must spin. This is simply the one I follow. Give it something reasonable and you'll be set.

Changing magnetic field:

1. Click planet > Open object properties > Composition > Magnetic Field. Unfortunately, the game doesn't automatically generate a field based on the size and rotiation of the planet, so you'll need to manually add it.
   
2. Input a value between 0 and 1 Gauss. Rocky planets would generally not have fields stronger than this. Earth has a field strength of 0.319 Gauss in the game.
   
3. Composition > Show Magnetosphere. Turn on "Show Magnetosphere." If the size of the magnetosphere is greater than 1 radii and you can visibly see the blue hue, you're set. If not, try strengthening the magnetic field. In-game modelling dictates that magnetospheres only function if they are greater than 1 radii in size. Note that you may need to unpause the simulation for it to update.

STEP 5: ATMOSPHERE & ALBEDO

Finally we can start the process of making the planet look habitable and aesthetically pleasing, not all that behind the scenes adjustments.

The Science

Atmosphere is a critical part of habitable planet design.

• Without atmosphere, water cannot remain liquid on the surface of the planet. One of the most important ingredients to life would be effectively rendered unusable.
  
• Perhaps obvious, but no less important—organisms need air to survive. The basis of the food web—plants—need air to perform photosynthesis and produce energy to support the web. Animals need air to perform respiration.
  
• Atmosphere permit a dynamic climate and the distribution of heat across the whole planet so that the temperature of the day and night side are not too different. A relatively constant temperature is optimal for the development of life.
  
• Certain gases in the atmosphere carry out the greenhouse effect, keeping a planet warmer than it would otherwise be. This is beneficial to an extent as it expands the habitable zone for the planet, allowing it to still retain suitable temperatures at a farther distance from its star.
  
• Mechanisms to block out high energy stellar radiation exists in the atmosphere—most notably the ozone layer. This radiation can sterilise the surface and render it inhospitable if such a mechanism was not present.

Albedo is how much light the planet reflects. 0 means it reflects no light and 1 means it reflects all light. I'll explain how it works in practice below.

Doing It In-Game

1. Click planet > Open object properties > Temperature > Average Albedo. Give it a value of around 0.3. This is the albedo of Earth and should be fairly consistent for habitable planets. Combining all landmasses, ice caps and oceans, Earth reflects 30% of sunlight. Since we're also going to be adding oceans later on, an albedo of 0.3 would be about right. If you want to create a world with just ocean and no landmass, an albedo of 0.1 would be more suitable.
2. Temperature > Surface Pressure. Change the unit of surface pressure so that it shows "atm." This unit measures the pressure of the planet's atmosphere compared to Earth. 1 atm = same pressure as Earth's atmosphere. As a result, it is very easy to understand how much atmosphere you're talking about if you use it.
   
3. Input a value into "Surface Pressure" between 0.1 and 10 atm. Below 0.1 atmospheres and a lot of life-sustaining mechanisms would have trouble functioning. Above 10 atmospheres and you'd start to get a very enhanced greenhouse effect that could make the planet too hot. Think Venus. That said, if the planet is around the outer fringe of the habitable zone, feel free to add more atmosphere to get the temperature up.
   
4. Once you enter the value for surface pressure, you'll notice the "Greenhouse Effect" underneath it shows a value too.
   
5. Add the temperature shown in "Greenhouse Effect" onto the "Effective Temperature" of the planet and you'll be able to calculate the "Surface Temperature." The surface temperature is what organisms would experience on the planet's surface. Earth has a surface temperaure of around 15°C in the game. Use that as a reference point and adjust surface pressure accordingly. This changes the greenhouse effect and thus changes the surface temperature of the planet.

STEP 6: OCEANS!

We're almost there. This is the step you've all been waiting for. Now that the magnetic field and atmosphere have been created, we can finally supply the world with its water.

The Science

When it comes to life as we know it, water is everything. Its chemical properties make it ideal for the survival and development of organisms.

• Current theories suggest that liquid water acted as a medium that allowed organic compounds to mix with each other. Eventually, this random assortment created a combination that could replicate and harness energy—the first unicellular life.
  
• The oceans can shield life from stellar radiation. The ozone layer also has this function but it didn't develop yet in Earth's early history and may not either for other habitable planets. During this time, life survived in the oceans.
  
• Its chemical properties means it can act as both a solvent and a transport mechanism. It dissolves essential nutrients and ions and transports them into cells, as well as removing waste material, effectively regulating the internal processes that sustain life.
  
• Water is an important regulator of climate. The ease at which it can turn into vapour allows it to be distributed across Earth as precipitation. Oceans also act as giant heat sinks, capable of both absorbing and releasing it. This would be no different for exoplanets if they have a similar set of conditions.

Doing It In-Game

1. Click planet > Open object properties > Composition. From here, in "Material Composition," you can finally add water. To do this, you can either adjust the slider or input a value of mass. I don't use the slider to add water because it's easy to accidentally add too much.
   
2. Select "kg" as the unit for the input box. It is more simple to adjust the amount of water using this unit.
   
3. Input a value into the box. Depending on the mass of the planet, the mass of the water you wish to add may be different. 1E+21 kg of water is a good place to start. You can adjust later on.
   
4. Aim for around 0.02% of the planet's composition being water. This is sufficient to create oceans while still leaving some land above sea-level. By comparison, Earth has 0.0226% water in its composition. There isn't a way to directly change the percentage of water, so the best option is to trial-and-error via toggling the total mass of water.

If you want to create a world completely covered in a global ocean, simply add more water. Such planets can still be habitable provided the other conditions in this guide have been met. It's just that from our current understanding, civilisations require landmass to develop as it grants them more sources of energy to harness like fire, coal and oil. That's not to say multicellular organisms can't develop in a complete water world; they just probably won't get to the point of constructing cities and spacefaring.

STEP 7: CUSTOMISING YOUR LANDMASSES

Strictly speaking, this doesn't really have a whole lot to do with habitability, and there isn't much science behind it. But, a habitable planet might not look like it's teeming with life unless you paint some of these colours onto it.

Doing It In-Game

1. Click planet > Open object properties > Appearance. From here you can customise your planet depending on elevation. If you are seeking for lush vegetation, add some green. Desert world or sandy beaches? Add some yellow. Do note that this is only a pretend-method. You're actually customising the colour of the surface and the rocks of the planet. But it looks good enough to call it vegetation.
2. Suppose you've created a world with both oceans and land. I generally make it so that the highest elevation has the lightest colour, resembling alpine regions or plateaus, with it darkening as elevation decreases to mirror an increase in vegetation. I've provided an example to the right. Obviously, if you've created a water world with no landmasses, there is no point changing anything as everything will be covered by water anyway.
   
3. Depending on just how realistic you want things to be, there are different colour schemes you can follow. Generally, if you just want the planet to look good, various shades of green will be fine. But here's an interesting fact. Small stars like red dwarfs actually don't emit much visible light. Their main form of energy is infrared radiation. As a result, plants on a planet orbiting such a star seeking to utilise photosynthesis might actually be black to capture and absorb as much of the visible spectrum as possible. Just something to think about.

STEP 8: OPTIONAL ADJUSTMENTS

If you've followed the guide correctly up til now, your planet will resemble a habitable world through and through. But after all, this guide is all about realism. The following features don't really impact habitability in the game modelling, but can be adjusted if you are interested.

Axial Tilt & Obliquity

Giving your planet some tilt to its axis allows for seasons as it orbits around the star. As this section states, seasons are not currently modelled in-game and thus axial tilt does not impact habitability, but all planets in the universe have some degree of axial tilt. Seasons help to stimulate diversity and a dynamic biosphere.

1. Click planet > Open object properties > Motion > Obliquity. Input a value or drag the slider to change axial tilt.
   
2. An obliquity of around 20° allows for moderate seasons. The larger the degree, the more extreme the seasons. 0° means there are no seasons. For optimal habitability, an angle of 45° should best not be exceeded.

Magnetic Pole Angle

This is defined as "angle between rotation axis and magnetic pole." Essentially, it dictates how far apart the ends of the magnetic field are from the axial tilt of the planet. Earth has a pole angle of 12°, so its magnetic field originates 12° away from the axis at which it rotates. Bit of a mouthful, but hopefully the picture allows you to understand it a bit better.

1. Click planet > Open object properties > Composition > Magnetic Pole Angle. Input a value or drag the slider to change pole angle.
   
2. What does changing this value actually do in-game? The answer? From what I've gathered, absoutely nothing. However, in the real universe, depending on the orientation the magnetic field sits, it may interact with the stellar wind in different ways. We know diverting the stellar wind is important for habitability, and so the shape of the magnetic field and where it points has an effect on that.

Presence Of A Large Moon

There has been some debate over whether Earth's abnormally large moon has some effect on habitability and the development of life. The idea is that the gravitational tug of the Moon helps to stabilise our axial tilt. You can imagine that if our axis of rotation kept changing, we'd have a wildly fluctuating climate unsuitable for life, which desires constancy.

The Moon is also responsible for our tides. Its movement gives rise to a more dynamic climate and stirs up organic compounds. This mixing may have also been a factor in the first life developing on our planet.

If these studies are true, then large exomoons around their parent planet would achieve a similar effect and thus boost the chances of life's survival and development. I think the rules are pretty flexible for this one. If you want, just go Add > Random Moon and place it in orbit around the planet. The Earth is 81 times more massive than the Moon. You can use that as a guide when choosing the mass of exomoons.

QUESTIONS & COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

I've followed everything correctly, but my planet's "Life Likelihood" is really low. Why is that?

The "Life Likelihood" is a measurement of how suitable the planet's life-supporting conditions are to Earth's. A likelihood of 100% means it is exactly like Earth. And by exactly, I mean exactly, from mass to temperature to day length to axial tilt to atmospheric pressure. If you want to create Earth 2.0 and challenge yourself with getting a likelihood of 100%, you can copy all of Earth's parameters. DevXen has a great guide for that. However, habitable exoplanets come in all shapes and sizes. You shouldn't feel constrained and under pressure to achieve a high Life Likelihood. Do what you think is best for the planet and what looks suitable for you.

What about habitable planets around binary stars? How can it be done?

Habitable planets in a two-star system in absolutely possible. You can still follow everything in this guide from step 3 onwards. That doesn't change. The biggest difference is how to place a planet such that it orbits two stars. That is a topic I have covered in another guide: Guide To Building Binary Star Systems. Refer to that one to get the configuration of such a system correct.

A second difference is the habitable zone. Currently, the game does not support a combined habitable zone of multi-star systems. Since a planet would be getting energy from two stars, the "Habitable" display, which shows habitable zones for individual stars only, isn't useful in determining proper planet placement for it to be habitable. There's no real solution to this except trial-and-error to find a good distance. It would need to be some distance further than where you'd normally place it.

SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

Guide Summary

Here are the simplified steps to creating a realistic habitable planet:

1. Place down a star with 0.5–1.4 solar masses.
   
2. Place a rocky planet in orbit around the green region of the star's habitable zone.
   
3. Adjust the mass of the planet such that it is 0.6–6 Earth masses.
   
4. Adjust the eccentricity of the planet's orbit such that it is less than 0.1.
   
5. Adjust the rotational period of the planet such that it is 6 hours to 25 days.
   
6. Add a magnetic field to the planet that produces a magnetosphere large enough to enclose the entire planet.
   
7. Set the albedo of the planet to around 0.3.
   
8. Add an atmosphere to the planet between 0.1 and 10 atm.
   
9. Add water to the planet such that it makes up around 0.02% of its composition.
   
10. Adjust the appearance of its surface to suit a design scheme.
    
11. Adjust obliquity, magnetic pole angle or add moon(s) if you see fit to do so.

Edits/Revisions

Date	Edit/Revision
22/12/2018	Added a reference to DevXen's guide.
01/02/2023	Marked guide as outdated. US2 has progressed significantly since the creation of this guide, but I lack the time and means to play it again to reevaluate the accuracy of this information.

[jwhite3099]

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[jwhite3099]

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[jwhite3099]

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[jwhite3099]

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[jwhite3099]

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[CINATITSMR]

Well, we can add actual vegetation now. I mean it's limited to either vegetation everywhere, or just the distribution on earth, but it's something.

[Stimpicus]

the surface of the planet looks like crap. how is this still a thing in the game? the surface of the planets looks so so very fake and ugly. do something about it already.

[philip_ze_German]

i have literly done every of these steps when i started terraforming, but still cool

[Crimson Mace]

How is the sky colored when on the surface of your planets? Is it some kind of shader, if so what's the name?

[ortherner]

kool