Statmun
Statmun as seen by a small sighting scope on Mesbin.
Name: Statmun
Designation: Kaywell A d IV
Discovery (Mesbin): Naked eye observations (thought to be a floating mountain)
Statmun was discovered by early Mesbinite surface explorers. They noticed a particularly tall mountain stretching over the horizon. As they approached its position, they realized that the mountain was detached from the horizon--it was floating! The explorers called it Aetheris Mons, the Sky Mountain. It never moves across the sky, always staying almost perfectly still above a specific spot on Mesbin's surface. The terrain below Aetheris Mons was considered a mystical place for many years until physicists came up with an explanation for its apparent defying of gravity. Aetheris Mons turned out to be a moon of Mesbin, orbiting in a nearly perfect Mesbo-syncronous orbit. It was not actually still, it was orbiting Mesbin's center at the same orbital period that Mesbin itself rotated, which just so happened to be only a few hundred kilometers high.
- Dimensions = 12 km x 6 km x 6 km
- Polar Radius = 3,000 meters
- Mass = 1.059 x 10^16 kg
- Density = 9.36 x 10 g/cm^3
- Apparent Equatorial Surface Gravity = Negative
- Polar Gravity = 0.008 Gee
- Rotation Period = 1,701 seconds. (28 minutes, 21 seconds.)
- Parent Body = Mesbin
- Semi Major Axis = 2,643,404.49 meters.
- Orbital Period = 1,701 seconds. (28 minutes, 21 seconds.)
- Eccentricity = 0.001
- Inclination = 0.01°
- Mean Anomaly At Epoch = 351.566°
- Argument of Periapsis = 4°
- Longitude of Ascending Node = 1°
Statmun close-up
Statmun was formed out of the densest, most solid bits of the metallic core of a Manonam (Pluto) sized moon that fell too close to Mesbin. This created a vast ring system as well, which eventually fell to the surface and now exists only as the diffuse ring system of tiny moonlets.
Statmun's surface is mostly under negative gravity due to centrifugal forces and is below the Roche Limit. By all rights it ought to be torn apart, but it's held together by tensile strength--it is effectively one massive welded chunk of iron-nickel.
Its density is however much higher than simple iron-nickel, implying there must be a large amount of heavier metals. Since they are not detected from the surface, Statmun may in fact be internally differentiated, with a dozen or so percent heavy metals like Osmium or Uranium forming the inner core.
Due to the negative gravity, dust can only settle at the poles or in steep craters in the middle latitudes. Those are also the only places where it is possible to land a spacecraft.
It is possible to roll off of Statmun into space.