The First Signal

Artistic depiction of the system.

It did not begin with a planet. It began with a flicker—a distortion in the spectrum of a distant star.

When the James Webb Space Telescope scanned the faint system now catalogued as Aurigae-F, astronomers noticed something unusual. The signal did not trace a planet’s orbit but something smaller: a moon. Later named Erythra Ferris, it betrayed its presence through violent geysers that tore into the void.

Unlike the pale plumes of Enceladus or Europa, Ferris’ eruptions carried an unfamiliar signature. Webb’s spectrographs revealed vapor threaded with ferrum compounds, oxidized as if water and iron were locked in an ancient struggle beneath the crust. The expelled material shimmered in hues Earth knew well—rust tones, deep bronze, and even faint iridescent films, the same colors steel takes on when touched by heat and water.

At first, the data was doubted. Interference? A calibration ghost? But the pattern repeated, unmistakable. Ferris was not a dead moon. It was restless, and it marked the first step toward something greater.

Where there is a moon, there must be a parent. And so the search widened. Instruments across Earth and orbit turned toward Aurigae-F, tracing the gravitational dance.

That was when Foundryon emerged.

A world larger than Earth, resting inside the habitable zone. Its atmosphere revealed itself slowly, each scan a layer: oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide. Nothing conclusive, nothing impossible—yet the balance was unusual. Stable, sustained, and strangely reminiscent of home.

It was not proof. Not life. Not yet. But it was enough to spark attention, debate, and imagination.

What began as a flicker of vapor on a moon had led to the discovery of an entire system. The world was no longer a line in a catalog; it was a question hanging over humanity.

NASA Notes [Declassified Excerpt]

Object: Aurigae-F System

• Star: G-class, ~9.7 billion years old

• Planet: Foundryon (Aurigae-F b)

• Moon: Erythra Ferris (Aurigae-F b-1)

• Key Observations:

  • Ferris: geysers containing ferrum oxides, volatile compounds, water vapor

  • Foundryon: atmosphere shows oxygen-methane imbalance suggestive of non-abiotic processes

  • Status: under continued observation

Seeker Interpretation [Foundryon Codex Fragment]

“We did not first see the world. We saw its scar, erupting iron into space. Ferris was the marker, the trail of sparks leading to the dark forge of a hidden planet.”

Conclusion

The first discovery was not a planet but its moon. Ferris tore open its crust, releasing vapor rich with water and iron into the void. Only by chasing that scar did humanity find Foundryon—a world with an atmosphere too balanced, too familiar, to be ignored.