Aurora
The superearth-sized planet Aurora was among the first colonized by Humans during the early days of space exploration. Its star, Helios, is unstable and experiences constant magnetic storms. As such, Aurora is famed for the constant display of bright streaks of light in the sky, much like the aurora borealis on Earth. These lights can be seen anywhere on the planet, and make viewing the stars or the planet's four moons nigh impossible.
The capital city of Aurora is Antica, which lies on the planet's equator.
Geography
Most of Aurora's population live near the equator, where the solar storms are less powerful. Still, there are settlements closer to the poles, such as on the Borealis Plains or in the planet's southern hemisphere. It is a world of low hills and intense gravity. Its capital city, Antica, lies along the equator and holds the planet's only spaceport.
Aurora has four moons, Aeos, Pyrois , Aethon and Phlegon, the latter three are all captured asteroids. They are invisibly because of the power of Helios's solar storms.
Ecosystem
Rather than the green pigmentation found on Earth, Aurora favors blue. As a result, much of the local fauna has become blue tinted. After some generations, this began happening to the human inhabitents as well, as they acquired the mutation from eating the locally-grown food.
Fauna & Flora
The most notable fauna are the Bluox, a six-legged blue beast famed for its meat.
Aurora also is a haven for rice and wheat, though care is taken to properly process the grains before export, as not to accidentally alter the genome of the humans on other planets.
Lightberries have a sweet tang that hums on the tongue and are green in color.
Auroran vegetables are sweeter than those of Earth, leading some to consider that children may not need to be bribed to eat their vegetables.
Natural Resources
Aurora is an agricultural world, as the intense gravity makes heavier industry more cost-prohibitive. Helios' magnetic storms also wreak havoc on power and electronics, rendering most machines inoperable.
History
Aurora was colonized between 2100-2200 CE, as one of the closest habitable planets to Earth. The original colonists crash-landed, an event marked by the The Thanksgivings. The First Thanksgiving is to commemorate the first harvest on Aurora, and the Second Thanksgiving is to give thanks that their ancestors survived the crash.
Tourism
Aurora experiences little in the way of tourism, mostly because it lacks the amnenities of "modern" planets, and because of the punishing gravity. The rare tourist will often find themselves getting suckered into a friendly game of poker with the locals, despire being warned not to in the tourism brochures.
Another point of interest is the Auroran Technological Institute, a university often visited by traveling dignitaries.
Antica, the capital, holds a spaceport, the planet's only link to the rest of the galaxy. From there, travellers are sent via Artificial Singularity to the Epsilon Eridani Hub to transfer to their final destination. There is some commerce as well, notably from companies like the Borealis Corporation.
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