alien physiology??

[aryastark]

I have little grasp on how physics or planetary things work. I have a story in mind, with an alien involved but the point is not to develope an entire culture or anything. I just need to know if certain things are possible?
er...ok...say the planet he's from has an older, weaker sun...that would mean the race would be pale, right? they don't need melanin or whatnot...but, what would make an alien have bluishy skin? and would a dying sun affect things like gravity? what if there's no moon?
I'm lost

 

[Hypes]

Gravity is defined by the size (mass) of the planet itself and to an extent the bodies circling it. That is my interpretation, at least. I imagine a dying sun would have an effect on climate rather than direct gravity

Blue skin? Perhaps they require something entirely different than us, and the pigments are blue instead of pale/black/etc. After all, they are your aliens - shape them as you wish.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Blue skin? Perhaps they require something entirely different than us, and the pigments are blue instead of pale/black/etc. After all, they are your aliens - shape them as you wish.

Different body chemistry? Different make-up of the nutrients in the food they eat? A race whose planet has some environmental disability that results in everyone having bad ciruclation? (Sorry, that last was a bit of a throway, but I had a class once with a girl who had bad circulation due to some kind of disability, and her complexion was decidedly bluish.) There are a number of approaches you might take - depends on a lot of things, including what you need your aliens to do to advance the plot.

Remember, you are like God to your characters - you set the rules and paramaters. Of course you want to make them as logical as possible; still, you shouldn't be afraid to make a leap of imagination, either.

Welcome to the board, by the way, aryastark.

 

[polymorphikos]

The octopus uses copper as the base for its oxygen-carrying system instead of the iron which is found in vertebrate haemoglobins. Maybe that could have something to do with it, because the copper makes the cephalopodan blood blue, whereas the iron makes ours red. Sorry if you already knew that.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Hi aryastark, and welcome to the chronicles-network.

As for the aliens - unless you are really willing to do som research into basic astrophysics, then simply let your imagine run wild and enjoy.