Lizard-996-Y

Astrographical Info

Age	2.453 Billion years
Axial Tilt	56° 02' 26"
Class	Gas Giant
Diameter	193,597 km (15.137 D⨁)
Gravity	13.295 g
Mass	9.5852 M♃
Suns	1

Orbital

Orbital Period	96.12 years
Rotation Period	7h 38m 26.92s
Semimajor Axis	5.563 AU
Solar Day	7h 38m 27.16s
System	Lizard-996 system

Atmosphere

Atmospheric Composition	H₂, He, CH₄
Temperature	-210 °C

Surface

Major Moons	Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto
Moons	97

Lizard-996-Y is the fourth of the four gas giants and the seventh planet from the star Lizard-996-A (L996A by the humans) in the Alpha Centauri System. Compared to Jupiter, Lizard-996-Y is much bigger and denser, and unlike Jupiter, Lizard-996-Y has no rings and has ninty-seven moons.

Physical Description

Lizard-996-Y has some resemblance to Neptune, but lacks the Great Dark Spot, and unlike Neptune, which is far out in the Solar System's boonies, Lizard-996-Y orbits L996A at a distance akin to Jupiter's distance from the sun. Due to the formation in a warmer region, it has a higher percentage of helium, and other heavy elements, and thus, a larger mass than expected for its size; it also possesses a larger liquid metallic core, a denser iron core, and a stronger, wider magnetic field.

In appearance, Lizard-996-Y is a big, blue, almost featureless looking Jupiter with less prominent bands. Unlike any other gas giant, Lizard-996-Y has no rings and, so far, no evidence of a ring system has been found.

Lizard-996-Y has a diameter of 120,295.6 miles and is noticeably larger and denser than Jupiter. Its magnetic field (and hence its core) rotates in 7.87 hours, while the visible surface has rotational speed of between 8.2 and 8.4 hours, depending on the latitude. Compared to the other gas giants, it has less prominent bands, while it has far more turbulent atmosphere than Jupiter. Besides, its internal structure is unusually complex, and the magnetic field interacts strongly with its satellites.

Lizard-996-Y appears to be a standard gas planet, with a standard composition. Like all other planets in this system, it was formed from the same interstellar gas/dust cloud. However, Lizard-996-A's system seems to have an especially high density of heavy elements, like helium, and especially iron.

Atmosphere

Besides, Lizard-996-Y formed closer to its sun, hence it has less hydrogen since the temperature was higher there, so the lightest elements failed to accumulate in the planet's center due to the high temperature; the stellar wind also stripped away some of the lighter elements from the planet's atmosphere, pushing them away. The auroras are near-constant and bright enough to see on a clear day.

Like any gas giant (and especially gas giants that are close to their suns, like Lizard-996-Y), this planet has a deadly radiation belt enclosing it; the belts around Lizard-996-Y are more energetic than Jupiter's radiation belts. Thus, the innermost satellites of Lizard-996-Y that orbit the planet inside the belts are exposed to radiation dose of over 9,500 rem per day (compared to 3,200 rem per day for Io), made even deadlier by the planet's high percentage of heavy elements in its atmosphere.

Compared to other gas giants, Lizard-996-Y has less hydrogen and more helium in its atmosphere since it formed in a warmer region: 68 percent hydrogen, 27 percent helium, compared to 86 percent hydrogen and 24 percent helium for Jupiter. Since helium is nearly twice as heavy as hydrogen, this statistic shows why Lizard-996-Y is denser and more massive than Jupiter. Its gravity is strong enough to compress the planet's atmosphere, forming a liquid metallic hydrogen core twice the size of Jupiter's. The other four percent of Lizard-996-Y's atmosphere consists of a roughly-typical mix of methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and water vapor.

There is also a small fraction of reactive chemicals in the atmosphere that are likely to be constantly replenished due to being broken down by the powerful solar UV photons, high-energy particles from the planet's radiation belts, and lightning strikes from the planet's atmosphere. The fraction consists of acetylene, carbon monoxide, ethane, germane, methyl acetylene, phosphine, and propane.

The chemical soup in the atmosphere is constantly churned by convection cells and powerful winds due to the planet's differential rotation.

Interior

Beneath the liquid droplet clouds that make up its visible "surface", Lizard-996-Y's atmosphere gradually thickens as its temperature and pressure build up from gravitational compression. When the pressure reaches about five gigabars (approximately 72,519,000,000 pounds per square inch, which is almost seventy-three billion times Earth's sea level atmospheric pressure) and the temperature reaches about 6,000 K (10,340 °F, slightly hotter than the surface of the Sun), hydrogen undergoes a phase change to its metallic form. The size of the liquid metal portion is about three-quarters of the planet's total diameter. This feature is common to all but the smallest gas giants.

Below the liquid core, there is a central core of molten iron, surrounded by a thin layer of less dense, rocky material. Gas giants typically have fairly light cores of rock and ice since there was not much of heavy elements in the outer solar system where they formed.

Lizard-996-Y has an internal source of heat caused by the conversion of gravitational potential energy into thermal energy as the planet slowly contracts under its own gravity. In addition, as mentioned above, the planet's hydrogen and helium were originally in gas form, but they were later forced into liquid form under the high pressure in the planet's core. This process also released latent heat (also called the "heat of vaporization", or the amount of heat required to turn a liquid into a gas) into the atmosphere. Finally, some of the helium dissolved in the liquid metallic hydrogen core began to precipitate out and fall toward the planet's center, thus adding more heat due to the conversion of gravitational potential energy into thermal energy through frictional heating.

Lizard-996-Y's internal heat along with the planet's rotational momentum causes circulating convection currents in the core of liquid metallic hydrogen. Those currents carry electric currents induced by the movement of charged particles in the liquid metal. Those electric currents create an extremely powerful magnetic field that surrounds the planet. The core of molten iron at the center of the liquid metallic hydrogen portion also adds to the magnetic field, forming magnetic loops that carry charged particles (such as electrons, protons, charged atoms, and molecules) in intricate patterns around the planet's atmosphere.