Espa

Espa is the third planet of the Odjoran system in the Æthelgrum in the Tonya Expanse. It bares a resemblance to Earth, but is larger and more massive.

It's the third planet of the system, a warm superhabitable earth-like planet, it has five moons (Vorûn, Alrûn, Azhban, Yattuk and Ezhra). The planet accommodates organic multicellular life. Espa is the homeworld of a humanoid species called the Vahiny, which inhabits the world alongside Humans.

Surface
Espa similarly to the Earth has active plate tectonics and is consequently a geologically active world, however since the planet is less dense than the earth its tectonics generally move more smoothly. The last supercontinent on the planet exist approximately 180 million years ago and has since broken up into the current continental arrangements seen on the planet. The exist numerous active volcanic regions on the planet. As earlier mentioned tectonic plates drift faster on Espa than on earth due to the planets density the average drifting speed of the plates is 9 mm/year.

Super volcanoes aren't rare, but due to the size of Espa they aren't as harmful to life as on earth with the same applying to sea- and earthquakes.

Despite her higher gravity Espa's highs and lows vary more than they do on earth, the highest point on the planet being Mount Excelsum 10,554 meters above sea level in the Valarian Mountains in western Vantamir. These mountains are the result of a continental-oceanic convergent plate boundary pushing up the coastline, in a similar matter to the Andean mountains in South America. Roughly 6 to 10% of the planets surface can be classified as Mountainous.

The next 25% of the surface is covered by a wide variety of continental interiors, such as deserts, rain forests and plains, in total putting 35.8% of the surface above sea level meaning the planet has significantly more exposed land area than the Earth does. The largest of the Espan continents is Vantamir comprises over 27% of the planets total land area.

The remaining 64.2% of the planet is submerged under the planets wide oceans, the largest of these being the Theic Ocean directly west of Vantamir. The continental shelf is of similar proportions to earth comprising roughly 15% of the submerged surface. Average Ocean depth on Espa is 4 to 6 kilometers, with the deepest trench plunging 13,227 meters below sea level near the Kyuron Islands chain south of Ihan.

Atmosphere
Due to her stronger gravity Espa is able to hold a much denser atmosphere than the earth. The atmosphere on Espa is 3.07 times denser then on earth 3.6724 kg/m3, it contains far less Nitrogen and far more Oxygen (about 35%) then earths. In addition it also contains Krypton instead of Argon though argon is still found abundantly. Because of the denser atmosphere concentrations of oxygen at the surface have risen to 350,000 ppm. This has pushed the atmosphere to the point of spontaneous combustion during thunderstorms. Forest fires are frequent on Espa and can burn huge areas overnight. This is compensated for by the Carbon-dioxide levels which are around 50 times higher on Espa than on earth causing massively accelerated plant growth across the planet.

The planet also experiences a higher greenhouse effect than earth's, 113% in fact, that gives the planet a slightly warmer average climate than Earth has.

For Homo Sapiens the Espan atmosphere is too dense and saturated with oxygen, the partial pressure of Nitrogen is over 1.8 atms, which has a strong narcotic effect, additionally the partial pressure of oxygen is almost 1.1 atms, which is over 5 times that of earth meaning hyperoxia will occur. Additionally CO2 concentrations are of toxic proportions. However at greater height the partial pressures of these gasses drop and at heights of above 4500 meters the Espan air pressure drops to 1.4 atms making it breathable to Humans, It is therefore believed that the first humans to arrive on Espa survived high up in the mountains before adapting to the lowlands conditions.

Espan Humans on the other hand have had thousands upon thousands of years to adapt to these conditions and have long since left the confinements of the mountain peaks they can utilize these gases and their abundance to support excessive muscle growth and a higher metabolism.

Color
From the ground during the day the Espan sky appears a pale shade of green, which shifts to a deep violet during sunset, due to the thick atmosphere some aerial plant-life is able to float freely in the thick air contributing to the green hue,these colourations are strongest during the early noon and slightly desaturate during the mornings and evenings. However near the poles the atmosphere is to cold for these aerial microbes to survive, here the sky reverts to its pure pale golden color which during sunset transits to a vibrant red, these colours originate from the higher concentrations of sulfur based gases in the upper atmosphere.

Orbit and rotation
Espa's orbit around Odjor takes 330 earth days at a distance of 0.89 AU's, meaning it has a circumference of 5.61 AU around the star. In its orbit it has a low eccentricity of 0.0135, with an inclination that is the base for the other planets thus being 0°.

Synodically the orbit takes 250,904548666 Espan days relative to Odjor meaning calendars use a base of 251 days.

The planet rotates on its own axis relative to Odjor every 31 hours 35 minutes, making days 131.59% longer than on earth. It has an obliquity of 27.1° which allows for slightly more seasonal variation than can be found on earth. As the polar circles on Espa extend further down, and the tropics extend further from the Equator this gives Espa smaller area to form deserts and temperate climate zones, that said these zones can still be found in plenty.

Moons
Espa has a lunar system consisting of a total of 5 moons, 2 large moons and 3 minor asteroid moons. While the larger moons appear to be old time companions of the planet the 3 minor ones appear to be captured asteroids.

The 2 inner moons are in geologically stable orbits but due to their size and composition almost certainly are captured asteroids rather than natural moons to Espa.

The 2 larger moons Azhban and Yattuk orbit in an 2:3 resonance, meaning that for every 2 orbits of Yattuk, Azhban completes 2 of its own, this suggesting they formed naturally along the planet eons ago.

The last of the moons, Ezhra appears to be another captured asteroid but has entered a high elliptical orbit and is expected to break free from Espan gravity within the next few thousand years.

History of Alliterations
Main article: Project Espa

Espa was originally created as the planet Oberon, 7 and a half years previous to the start of the Espa Project. With the oldest files naming the planet dating back as far as November 2013, Espa has been subject to quite some changes over time. Over time 5 versions of this planet can be separated: Erua, Oberon, Pre-CWP Espa, CWP-Espa and the current version.

Erua (Mk. 1)
Espa has existed as a conceptual idea since at least summer 2013. In September 2013 it began to take physical form as part as Oberon of the Erua Project In the very very first sketches I recovered of Espa (dating to September 2014), while initially separate planets as the Erua project grew stagnant alot of Erua's concepts and ideas were incorporated and transferred into Oberon as the planet gradually grew out of the project.

Oberon (Mk. 1)
The gradual parting from the Erua Project was formalized on 7 November 2014, when the planet left the Erua Project, during this time it was first modelled into Celestia as a more fledged out system.

Espa (Mk. 2)
Previous to 14 September 2016 Espa was called Oberon, after this date the planet got a massive refit.

The surface of Oberon was over 85% percent covered with water, there was only one supercontinent and a large number of islands spread all over the immense ocean. On the surface it was around the 291 degrees kelvin. The entire planet was 28,550 kilometers wide and had a rotation period of 24.10 hours.

Oberon orbited Axel Alpha at 0.908 AU with an eccentricity of 0.0135 and an inclination of 0.02 every 303 days.

Pre-CWP Espa (Mk. 3)
After the refit Oberon was renamed to Espa and a lot of changes were made, the planet had still the same orbital and main physical characteristics however the environmental character of the planet was completely altered, reclassifying the planet as superhabitable.



While the look of the planets surface was still mostly recognizable, one must note the addition of 3 continents and a lot of smaller islands, while the former northern pole has been replaced by a smaller continent more to the south, the other 2 continents are completely new. this caused the one supercontinent - one super ocean structure to disappear and a more spread structure to take its place.

The atmospheric composition was also made up, resulting in a 63% Nitrogen, 31% Oxygen and 3% Krypton atmosphere and warm humid climate.

CWP Espa (Mk. 4)
CWP Espa was the fourth version of this planet and had a lot more background info while basically once again more land mass was added and the percentage of water covering the surface was decreased to 76.4% by adding 2 new continents and several hundred new islands.

On 7 December 2017 a proposal to move the CWP into a fictional galaxy was approved allowing yet another revision. where the planet was completely taken out of the real world universe. This version also expanded into xenobiology and historical context.

PE Espa (Mk. 5)
In September 2020 the CWP was revisioned and consequently Espa was taken out of its canon to be its own stand-alone canon. Its since being developed on the JG Worldcraft YouTube Channel.

Trivia

 * Espa's map was originally based upon the planet seen orbiting Gliese 581 in the documentary Journey to the edge of the universe.
 * Espa was designed to be a superhabitable superearth planet.
 * Espa's lunar system was based upon the Plutonian moon system.
 * Inspiration for some of the Espan life forms is based on creatures from Deltora Quest.