How, exactly, does the sun going down increase radiation on some planets? I’m assuming the extreme radiation either comes from 1. Some radioactive element in the planet itself, or 2. due to a weak magnetic field, thus allowing more of the sun’s radiation to fry you.
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My guess: is that the game mechanic that decreases night time cold temperatures is also used (in reverse) on radioactive planets thus radiation increases during the night.
In reality, if it were solar radiation it would obviously decrease at night. Alternatively, if it were dust borne radiation that fell to the surface as the temperature cooled or with dew, then the game probably makes sence. Storms make things worse in all biomes so the dust thing seems most probable to me.
There are a lot of things in NMS that don’t line up with proper science.
I just go with it.
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Honestly I was wondering if there was a possible real explanation for it and you just got me one so thank you
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The same applies to water, how does being underwater differ from being on a low atmosphere planet?
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I don’t think all our NMS oceans are ‘water’ due to temperatures and simply the unlikelyness of a galaxy with lots of H2O oceans.
Could be any liquid that physics allows I suppose.
Low atmosphere suggests minimal breathable gas (not necessarily like earth but considered breathable to something in NMS). Underwater (or perhaps submerged would be better in this context) would be a concentrate of something thick/heavy enough for it to be liquid. Fish can breath in water but we cannot and likewise they cannot breath in open air.
I think with soluble gasses in a liquid being breathable it presents the possibility of one being able to exist in an ocean but not in the minimum atmosphere above.
Is that what you were asking or did I get lost somewhere there…? 
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That’s a great question, and there is no good “real” answer. The “sim” answer is that it’s a hazard that requires you to deal with that environment, submersion, by throwing upgrades and resources at it. Just like the nighttime radiation increase, though that does have a real world similarity, if a slight one.
When the sun rises here on Earth, the sun’s rays ionize the upper atmosphere, turning more oxygen (O2) into ozone (O3), which absorbs more radiation. When it goes down, the energy holding those three oxygen atoms together is gone, and it begins breaking down into O2 again, which lets in more cosmic rays from space. But since the sun is a huge constant hydrogen explosion, its radiation is more damaging.
What kills me are the cold planets, daytime temps of 10C or less that have blistering heat storms or night temps that skyrocket, which I experienced on one of those weird critters. The simple answer is that the universe is a threat, and sometimes the threats are just random.
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Well all we can confirm with what we know is:
- The player breathes Oxygen (Confirmed with ‘Oxygen Levels’ warnings)
- What liquid we are stepping into is low in oxygen (Confirmed by ‘Aeration Membrane’ used to generate more Oxygen from the liquid)
The only explanation I can think of is that the Exosuit draws in the atmosphere and processes it to a breathable level.
These filters are designed for processing gasses only, and when submerged in liquid the air-filters fail, requiring extra tech to work, (Cue Aeration Membrane.)
A by product of drawing in the atmosphere to process into oxygen is that things like toxicity and radiation also get drawn in as they are air-bound, and as the filters only process oxygen, the harmful material drawn in hurts us, again requiring extra technology to prevent this.
And to answer my own question, the void of space has 0 oxygen so the filters are unable to process anything. 
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Victor Hess, discoverer of cosmic rays, found that background radiation actually increases at night. Solar pressure from our sun helps to protect us from stray radiation.
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And our Universe being so new… That background radiation is actually “foreground”, and stronger than the one from the stars. In my first thoughts I considered that the unusual spin of planetary bodies, that we could describe as player-centric, also generates an unusual magnetic field that displaces most particles, incoming from the star, to the opposite side of the planet… I once shared buds with a Gek, that heard a Korbax say; that is the cause for the unified gravitational force in our galaxies.
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Well, just to confound you all a little more, I jumped out of my ship onto a new planet and was exposed to BOTH extreme Heat and extreme Cold at the same time as the sun was just setting! It was bizarre.
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Wait till ya get hit with a storm of extreme both, death comes quickly
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Really makes you think, doesn’t it?
Sure does. It’s one of the reasons I love this game 
I think it’s fun to try to think of a reason why something is the way it is.
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I just think “I need to get away from this planet” and leave. 
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Cold biome but subject to microwaves.
Critters must have some great shielding 
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I suppose if exposed to it long enough they’ll eventually evolve something
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We should make a thread for all the needed noodle-science to explain the simulation… A worthy endeavor for the CSD!
… Symposium: Evolutionary advantages of the jumping blobs. Open debate.
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Not sure about you but I’m disinclined to eat a bouncing blob creature. Kinda squishy…and how do you tell if its ripe?
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Hey hunger is the best sauce
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