late night worldbuilding idea
what if I made the point of origin for one of the civilizations in my setting a former ice giant whose atmosphere has been blown off by the expansion of its parent star into a low mass red giant
apparently a 0.5 mSol star can keep a planet orbiting at Jupiter's distance in its habitable zone for nearly 6 billion years which is literally a better prospect for life than most F-type stars, let alone anything more massive
late night worldbuilding idea
losing the deep atmosphere and no longer viable volatiles would be a fairly quick process if the solar system's history is any indication, and you'd likely be left with something that'd ostensibly resemble early Earth, if with less geological activity
hmmmm...
late night worldbuilding idea, a continuation
just realized that red giants from stars with such low masses won't exist for another forty billion-odd years from now, so I'd have to justify that with a star lifting project or somesuch in setting
still though, the entire idea of a star possibly giving birth to new life even on the verge of death, in a universe that's starting to show the first signs of aging is some philosophical-ass shit
late night worldbuilding idea
*nearly 6 billion years after leaving the main sequence for that first toot, rather