Kakhodor (planet)

Planetary characteristics
The planet Kakhodor is twice as massive as Earth. Due to its lower density, its gravity is only 1,05 g, or 5% higher than Earth's. The land/water ratio on Kakhodor is 50/50, with the oceans being shallower and saltier than those on Earth. The shallower oceans generate much less water pressure at the deepest points on the ocean floor, pressing much less water into the mantle. As a result, Kakhodor's mantle contains much less water than Earth's mantle. It is thought that the total amount of H2O on Kakhodor, the mantle included, is 1/20 that on Earth or less. However, since it is surface water that generates clouds that can rain, percipitation is almost as common on Kakhodor as it is on Earth. There are five large continents on Kakhodor, all connected by land bridges of varying width. Yet the oceans between ensure that no Pangea-style central desert effect is the case.

Due to the minimal amount of water in the mantle, the lower part of the crust is drier than that on Earth. This has an effect on plate tectonics: that on Kakhodor is more up and down than sideways, similar to that on ancient Mars but different from that on Earth. Unlike Venus, however, no global eruption has ever occurred on Kakhodor. The volcanoes on Kakhodor are quite efficient in releasing the magma pressure, so the planet is not building up to a global magma event. In Kakhodor's history, land bridges have came and went, with an effect on biodiversity similar to that of Terran plate tectonics.

The atmosphere is 75% nitrogen, 21,5% oxygen, 3% argon and 0,5% other gases. Atmospheric pressure at sea level is 0,87 that on Earth at sea level. Carbon dioxide levels are extremely low, much lower than those on Earth, and no Earth plant would have been able to survive in air so low in carbon dioxide. This is thought to be due to the torrential global autumn rains of the eccentric orbit washing CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Due to the lesser greenhouse effect, with the virtual absence of carbon dioxide punching holes in parts of the infrared frequency range at which water vapor do not cover, temperatures vary severely.

At the age of 5 billion Earth years, or 8,9 billion local years, Kakhodor is somewhat older than Earth.

Orbital characteristics
Kakhodor orbits a orange dwarf star of spectral type K2V. The orbital eccentricity is 0,265. Due to the shared resonant orbits in the system to which Kakhodor belongs, it is impossible to put a planet number from its star on it. The worlds cross orbits at intervals that ensure that they will never collide unless the system is disrupted somehow. That is, Kakhodor is a world twice Earth's mass that has not cleared its orbit.

The primary star is part of a binary system, with the other star (a M0V red dwarf) being located more than 50 astronomical units from the primary at all times, sometimes topping 1000 astronomical units.

Life
The extremely low carbon dioxide levels have challenged Kakhodor's plant life to evolve. Some Kakhodor plants in very wet regions have leaf openings similar to those in Earth plants but much greater numbers of them, allowing them to absorb enough carbon dioxide. In regions where water scarcity in some way limits plant growth (not only in deserts but also in areas where rain is simply not constant during the warm season), which is most of Kakhodor's land area, many strategies have evolved. The most common types only photosynthesize water to get hydrogen, taking the carbon from a near-global network of fungi-like hyfes that, unlike Earth mykorrhiza, also carries carbon along with the minerals. In some volcanic areas with rocky ground and no soil with hyfes, plants take advantage of the locally higher carbon dioxide levels from the volcanoes. There, even some hardy Earth plants would have been able to survive locally.

Due to the severe temperature variations, plants and ectotherm (cold-blooded) animals on Kakhodor have evolved antifreeze. Almost all modern ectotherm animals, with the exception only of a few living on some largely predator-free islands, have brains resistent to alcohol as a way to react quickly to spring predation just after the thaw. They do not even have to break down the alcohol, the brain functions soberly at high alcohol concentrations. They can, in other words, not become drunk. The proteins that formerly broke down alcohol have therefore evolved to other functions.

The endotherm (warm-blooded) animals that evolved from early ectotherms without alcohol resistance to become the first endotherms on Kakhodor are now almost completely extinct. They were outcompeted by other endotherms that evolved from alcohol-resistent ectotherms later on. This gave the new endotherms a superior ability to eat alcohol-filled ectotherms and plants without getting drunk.

Intelligent life
On Kakhodor, there are both currently living intelligent life, and traces of earlier intelligent life that no longer exists. Beings thought to be the degenerated descendants of the first intelligent life on Kakhodor still exist as unintelligent animals, though.

The discovery of the time capsules left behind by the earlier intelligent life had a dramatic impact on the society of current intelligent life. When the language was translated, it turned out that morality combined with the invention of functioning lie detectors had a dysgenic effect that led to the extinction of ancient intelligence.

Initially, the formation of moral values that judged actions by their intentions, considering intentional actions to be worse than non-intentional ones, forced the ancient intelligent life to pretend to be stupid. That already led to a fair deal of oppression and destruction of the environment, including the extinction of some of the ancient biodiversity. After the invention of functioning lie detectors, pretending stupidity was no longer enough. A combination of punishment and social shunning selectively bred the ability to make intentional decisions, and with it intelligence itself, out of the population.

When modern intelligent life discovered the fate of the earlier intelligent life, it led to a revolution against morality and laws. All specific judgment against intentional actions was abandoned. No longer did anyone have to bear social/legal pressure to pretend stupidity. This ushered in the current era of Kakhodoran culture, that of intelligent anarchy in which decisions are made through discussions in which the arguments decide the outcome, neither a dictator nor a vote majority. Environmental repair programs are now being done.