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> Inside a 'thick' nebula, obscuring all other entities in the sky except for their own star and planets.

Similarly to the alien planet in Eric Flint's "Mother of Demons"; there was a permanent thick cloud cover, and the the slowly moving sky illumination due to the unseen sun was called "the mother of pearl" by the locals.

I also like the idea of living in a dense globular cluster. Interstellar probes and, later, manned missions would be feasible quite early into civilization's technological development - since you're just a few light-weeks (or less) from another star, not a few light-years like us.



I thought the consensus was that stars in globular clusters are exceedingly unlikely to host planets, since they'd be ejected by the frequent interactions with other stars.


Quite unlikely, but see e.g. [1]:

> Therefore, it is still possible that planets exist around main sequence stars in globular clusters, although at small numbers because of the low metallicity, and at orbital periods of >~10 days.

[1] Expected Planets in Globular Clusters (https://arxiv.org/abs/0704.1067)


Oh my gosh, I loved that book! The creative depth with the native creatures there and their experiences with humans was captivating.




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