Hello, friends! Welcome to the penultimate posting of this year’s A to Z Challenge! This year, I’ve been telling you about the universe of Tomorrow News Network, my upcoming Sci-Fi adventure series. In today’s post, Y is for:
YOLA
Yola is a gas giant planet located in the Cygni Lambda-Kappa Star Sector. To some, Yola is one of the most spectacular sights in the known universe. To others, the colors look garish. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the ancient Earthlings used to say.
The planet’s distinctive variegation is caused by a complex mix of chemicals and jet streams in the planet’s atmosphere. The colors change periodically due to the photolytic influence of Yola’s sun (something similar is known to happen to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot). Sometimes, Yola’s colors are vibrant and bold; other times, they’re muted pastels.
Scientific research concerning Yola has been limited due to the fact that Yola is located in the middle of a war zone. The Yola System lies near the border between the United Earth Republic and the Hykonian Hegemonic Empire. Control over the planet has changed multiple times over the centuries.
The moons of Yola now host a mixed population of humans and Hykonians. Well, I say mixed, but in reality a lot of self-segregation goes on. At times, racial tensions run high; however, all-out violence among the locals is surprisingly rare. “You don’t have to like each other to live with each other,” as the citizens of Yola often say.
If there is ever going to be peace between Earth and Hykonia, that peace will likely begin on the moons of Yola. Or at least that’s what reports on the Tomorrow News Network have occasionally suggested.
So where did the name Yola come from? In universe, Yola derives from the Hykonian word for rainbow. As for the real world origin of this name, well… click here. You’ll figure it out.
Next time on Tomorrow News Network: A to Z, let’s end this year’s challenge with a bang. A Big Bang.
Planet Pailly 
Ha! Liked the origins of the name.
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Does this planet and its parts play a major role in the first book?
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*not parts, I meant it’s moons
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No, not at all. But the name Yola will come up a lot in the series going forward, and Yola will be the setting for at least one book that I have planned for the future. It’s a pretty important planet.
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Hahaha, yes of course, the origin of the name ;)) I love Yola, pretty planet!
Y is for Young
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This planet looks so cool!!
Y is for Yield
https://thedreamgirlwrites.wordpress.com/2020/04/29/yield/
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Thanks!
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Ooh! I love to read about planets in world building! Now, I’m wondering if the inhabitants of Yola (Yolans?) are dense enough to sustain the heavy gravity that a gas giant would have but the humans and Hykonians aren’t. Does that have anything to do with why they are fighting each other? -Nathaniel of Operation Awesome
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The humans and Hykonians live on Yola’s moons, not the planet itself. The gas giant’s gravity would be too much for them. There are native Yolan lifeforms on those moons as well, swimming around in the subsurface oceans (similar to the subsurface oceans of some of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons).
The humans and Hykonians don’t have much contact with the native Yolans, though, and it’s not clear if the Yolans are intelligent life forms.
I’m considering writing a story about the native Yolans at some point, with the working title of “Thin Ice.”
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