Can someone help me? I've been looking everywhere for the mass, diameter, and orbital elements of the following planets, but I can't find any info anywhere, not even on the non-canon sites
I second going for
Worlds of the Federation, but Memory Beta doesn't appear to have much from that book yet.
As for other noncanon, here's what
Star Trek Star Charts quotes as the general criteria for Class M planets (most of the below belong to the category): a diameter of 10,000 to 15,000 km and an age of 3-10 billion years. Class H and especially K worlds are allowed to be smaller, and Classes A through D are smaller still.
We might well assume that unless a deviation is specifically mentioned, all Class M planets are indeed pretty much alike, including their physical specs - they are likely to be the result of extensive terraforming by ancient humanoid species, after all, and since the Trek universe had those 4 billion years ago already, in total control of the galaxy, there would be evolutionary pressure for all subsequent humanoid species to stick to the same parameters or risk being marginalized.
Hence, an orbital radius of 1 AU, give or take; a year much like Earth's, a day much like Earth's, an atmosphere much like Earth's. Althought TOS "Paradise Syndrome" and "That Which Survives" both show that some species turn physically completely different planets into Earth copies, too, this is quoted as a surprising aberration in both cases. So the major worlds known by the time of TOS apparently set a pattern...
Cardassia Prime (I only know its average temperature: 120 degrees F)
No reason to disbelieve in norm; no phenomena not found on Earth, no absence of phenomena found on Earth.
Star Charts likes to think Prime is the sixth planet out from the local star, quoted as a K0V single.
Vulcan (seems to be a Super-Earth, hotter than Earth, has a much redder sun)
We basically never see the sun, and the skies are seldom clear; when they are, they appear blue and bright like Earth's. We might choose to think, like so many making Star Trek do, that the sun is 40 Eridani A (a K1 dwarf), but the physical characteristics of 40 Eri A might be different in the Trek universe. Certainly it appears to pump out a lot of ultraviolet compared to Sol, considering the Vulcan Inner Eyelid thing that never bothers them on Earth.
There might be some motivation to assume the Vulcan year isn't exactly the same as Earth's (mainly, the ages of certain key Vulcan characters might be better rationalized if they are sometimes quoted in Vulcan years), but no single ratio can be easily established.
Since Vulcan has no moon but does have major spherical partners filling the sky on occasion, the two leading interpretations are that Vulcan
is a moon to some planet, and that Vulcan is like Romulus in ST:Nemesis, twinned with a second planet of slightly different orbital radius and therefore regularly visited by this planet.
Star Charts thinks Vulcan is the second rock out from the K1 star, but co-orbiting with the sky-blotting planet that at certain times of year is named T'Khut (and has moons of its own). T'Khut is claimed to be the smaller of the two planets, and thus must be very proximal. Indeed, an orbiting period around Vulcan on par with Vulcan's own rotating period would be nice, because TAS shows T'Khut at the same spot on the sky be it day or night...
Delta Vega (from the Kelvin Timeline, ice world in same system as Vulcan)
Actually, quite
unlikely to be in the same system, or Vulcan dying would be news there, rather than a fact unknown to Scotty. Probably Spock just saw the destruction of his home through his mind's eye (necessary for Nero's dastardy plan of torture because Delta Vega has near-perfect cloud coverage and could not have provided Spock with an assured line of sight anyway).
Since another timeline has a different Delta Vega, perhaps this is actually a trade name, going to the fourth acquisition of the VEGA Corporation? Unlikely to be related to Vega in any fashion, as Vega is not a constellation but a star, and the star itself doesn't accommodate any of the Trek descriptions of Delta Vega..
Star Charts calls the Prime universe version Class G, FWIW.
Betazed (looks to be orbiting a G-type star)
Again, no non-Earthlike characteristics quoted, no ordinal known.
Star Charts gives no data of interest.
Romulus (very Earth-like)
Save for that companion planet, which probably isn't there all the time or the tides would be Interstellar-caliber...
Remus (tidally locked), in same star system as Romulus
And at the same orbital radius at least on occasion, as we actually see the two planets side by side.
Qo'nos (Klingon homeworld)
No reason to disbelieve in an Earth duplicate so far.
Nibiru (from Into Darkness, appears to orbit a different type of star, has unusual vegetation; not the hoax planet that is claimed to be approaching Earth on a comet-like orbit)
All we see is normal'ish gravity and sunlight. Might be a tad to the small side, though, when this thriving humanoid species
apparently in its entirety is threatened by a single volcano erupting. (Or then those folks were transplanted, and onto a particularly troublesome spot at that.)
Ferenginar (has a very rainy climate, but seems to be about the same temperature as Earth)
The only thing to note here is that temperatures on screen would be local, and giving little hint of a global average. Would planetary capitals be located at ideal climes, or would the location generally be chosen by other criteria?
Breen homeworld (temperature: about -60 degrees F)
And the jury is out on that - why did Weyoun claim the world is in fact quite temperate, and how much faith can we put on anything Breen when the species masks itself and its language so carefully, plus is famed for backstabbing?
The only reason I'm asking this is because I want to compare these systems to our Solar System, just like how they compare real exoplanet orbits to those of Mercury, Venus, Earth, etc., and I want to test their orbital stability to see if the systems would hold up to real-world physics or not.
I think this is particularly futile in Trek where we are explicitly told that there are systems out there where orbital mechanisms
cannot explain the factual stability of the observed orbits (Lima Sierra in "Loud as a Whisper").
Also, stability isn't a longterm requirement if inhabited planets are an artifact of terraforming, and sapient humanoids emerge out of unnatural processes rather than natural evolution or are transplanted outright.
Timo Saloniemi
