Ocean of Solaris

The Ocean of Solaris is a gigantic life form which covers almost the entire surface of the planet Solaris, located in a binary star system.

Biology
The Ocean of Solaris weighs over 700 billion tons and is made of an amorphous organic matrix with no cells, no visible organs and no nervous system. It covers the entire surface of its world, a terrestrial planet about one fifth larger than Earth, with the exception of a few scattered archipelagos, mostly in the southern hemisphere. Nothing is known of its metabolism, save that the planet's atmosphere has no oxygen and is in fact toxic for Humans.

Its scientific classification has been given as: type Politera, class Syncytialia, category Metamorphe.

The Ocean's most extraordinary aspect is the ability to control magnetic fields and possibly gravitational fields, which enables it to stabilize the orbit of its own planet around its twin suns.

For many years, Humans have tried to communicate with Solaris' Ocean, with no success. Even its sapience level is still not clear. Sometimes it clearly displays curiosity towards Humans and their experiments, yet sometimes it completely ignores them.

Structures
Solaris' Ocean seems to spend most of its time creating gargantuan and complex structures on its surface. Although scientists have studied and classified such structures for many years, their purpose remains unknown. Some of them last for many weeks, while others degenerate in just a few minutes, after which the material they are made of returns to the Ocean's matrix.

Visitors
Solaris' Ocean is not only aware of the Human explorers on its surface, but also indirectly interacts with them. Somehow it can read their minds and create a replica of a person that they remember well. The replicas look and behave almost exactly like a normal Human, even at molecular level, but they're actually made of neutrinos, giving them some superhuman abilities like regeneration and superhuman strength. Although neutrino groupings are highly unstable, the Ocean is able to stabilize them, likely by using magnetic fields. These "visitors", as they are called, are not aware of their true nature. Again, it is unknown why the Ocean creates them.

Appearances

 * Solaris, by Stanisław Lem (1961)

Соляріс