The Cosmic Gimbal
The Eternal Duet
At the nucleus of the Cosmic Gimbal is what we call the Duet; comprised of our home planet, Dia, and its partner, Kos. These two are a close binary system, orbiting in two ellipses around a common barycenter (see magical gif below). They are also tidally locked, meaning each planet keeps the same face toward the other.
The time it takes to complete an orbit is equal to one day or 24hrs on Dia (and some parts of Kos1). At the closest point in their orbit the Duet are about 1,000 miles from each other, and about 14,000 miles apart at their farthest. These tidal forces have caused vast and chaotic oceans to cover the inward hemispheres of both planets.
Dia has a circumference of about 12,000 miles, roughly two thirds the size of Kos (~18,000 mi). Curiously however, in order for the Duet to orbit each other equidistantly as they do, either Dia’s density and mass are far greater than what is mathematical, or there is some other force at play.
The Duet orbit each other as if similar mass.
Much of Mistmore’s study is devoted to discovering the reason behind Dia’s mysterious gravitational pull. Although perplexing, we owe our atmosphere and perfect living conditions to this confounding incongruency.
Circling our planet are the first rings of Dia. These rings spin about 600 to nearly 1,000 miles above the surface and are the only rings in our sky visible during the daytime. Scholars still teach that Kos was partially formed by the asteroids in these rings, caught by Dia’s peculiar gravity. This may be true for a portion of the inner hemisphere (and explain the countless craters found there), however, there’s been a new school of thought proposed by Master Mistmore that directly contradicts this theory. Kos is allegedly made of things much larger than asteroids.
Orbits, orbits everywhere
An approximate Gimbalic Concept.
As you travel out into space, farther from the nucleus of the Duet, you will find more and more rings and belts of asteroids; each with a different axis and tilt. Intermittently between these rings are the orbits of planets and other satellites. At this point we know of eight more satellites outside of our moon and sun, all of which orbit the Duet as part of the Cosmic Gimbal.
As you may have surmised, it is this wild array of rings and orbits, and their role in balancing the delicate life on The Duet, that inspired the name of our system; the Cosmic Gimbal.
— Prof. R. Mistmore, Esqu. pp Scriv. Blot2
The moon, sun, and first rings of Dia
“Kos is a bit of a nightmare when solving its day cycle, as it rotates on two axes. One as described above, tidally locked with Dia; the other nearly perpendicular, along an axis that continually ‘points’ toward Dia.”↩︎
“I would love to continue about the Moon and the Sun next, being next two celestial bodies of our system respectively, but I must work on other parts of our research for now. Please be patient as I am writing this solely myself…”↩︎