Referred to locally as the "Pybus Snowball," Pybus III only gets close enough for the sun to melt the top layer of ice once every four thousand years. The nickname was bestowed on the planet by spacer explorers who had obviously never descended to its surface to discover the wide variety of life that thrives despite the cold, such as small animals feed on clusterings of shrubs that grow just above the ice formations.

Although Pybus III has no liquid water, researchers believe that formations on the surface indicate that it was once entirely oceanic. Debates are ongoing as to the cause of its freezing. One theory is that the planet's drop in temperature is the result of a change in its orbit, although the cause of this hypothetical shift is unknown.

There is a more recent hypothesis which is believed may have been responsible for the arrival of settlers to Pybus III. A planetary development team created rumors that claimed that raw materials could be obtained by melting the ice on the planet's surface. Scientific reports that propose that the planet's liquid metal core is in a state of rapid cooling, thereby causing its icy surface, were circulated by the team to support the rumors. Although many argue that there is no evidence to suggest any unusual amount of material from the core would be trapped now in the ice, the mere possibility has proven incentive enough to drive miners and entrepreneurs to visit the "Pybus Snowball."

While questions remain as to the Pybus III's history, the settlers cared little for the researchers' finds and pressured them to leave the planet. Rather than being lured by mineral wealth, they claimed to have migrated in order to escape the busy life of large cities on more populated planets, and settle on a smaller and more remote world on which they could live in more peaceful and orderly settlements of simple construction.

Many of the new residents of Pybus III make their living by crafting and selling goods to traders passing through the system. Although a few people visiting Pybus do come to visit Pybus III and share in its residents' more spartan lifestyle, most tourists only stop for supplies on the way to Imzig and other larger worlds.