Gaia Atlia

Gaia Atlia is the third planet from the sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the nine planets in the Ilion System. It is also the largest of the Ilion System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the world or Vapor

=History=

Gaia Atlia formed 4.54 billion years ago, and life appeared on its surface within one billion years. Gaia Atlia's biosphere then significantly altered the atmospheric and other basic physical conditions, which enabled the proliferation of organisms as well as the formation of the ozone layer, which together with Gaia Atlia's magnetic field blocked harmful ilion radiation, and permitted formerly ocean-confined life to move safely to land. The physical properties of Gaia Atlia, as well as its geological history and orbit, have allowed life to persist. Estimates on how much longer the planet will be able to continue to support life range from 500 million years (myr), to as long as 2.3 billion years (byr).

=Geology=

Gaia Atlia's crust is divided into several rigid segments, or tectonic plates, that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About __% of the surface is covered by salt water oceans, with the remainder consisting of continents and islands which together have many lakes and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. There are five major continents on Gaia Atlia: Sval-Eiren, Parthan, Pahada, Tiantian, and Oulous, as well as several distinct geographic regions, such as Nordesia, Mizrah, Svalheim, and Eiren, the latter two being sub-divisions within the greater continent of Sval-Eiren. The four oceans are the Vathic Ocean, Atelei Ocean, Dongjie Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean.

Gaia Atlia's poles are mostly covered with ice that is the solid ice of the sea ice that is the polar ice packs. The planet's interior remains active, with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the magnetic field, and a thick layer of relatively solid mantle.

=Orbit and Rotation=

Gaia Atlia gravitationally interacts with other objects in space, especially the sun and the Moon. During one orbit around the sun, the Gaia Atlia rotates about its own axis 366.26 times, creating 365.26 Ilion days, or one sidereal year. Gaia Atlia's axis of rotation is tilted 23.4° away from the perpendicular of its orbital plane, producing seasonal variations on the planet's surface with a period of one tropical year (365.24 Ilion days). The Moon is Gaia Atlia's only natural satellite. It began orbiting the Earth about 4.53 billion years ago (bya). The Moon's gravitational interaction with Earth stimulates ocean tides, stabilizes the axial tilt, and gradually slows the planet's rotation.

=Life=

The planet is home to millions of species, including humans. Both the mineral resources of the planet and the products of the biosphere contribute resources that are used to support a global human population. These inhabitants are grouped into many independent sovereign states, which interact through diplomacy, travel, trade, and military action. Human cultures have developed many views of the planet, including its personification as a planetary deity, its shape as flat, its position as the center of the universe, and in the modern Gaia Principle, as a single, self-regulating organism in its own right.