A sense of scale...

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:19 pm

We're not talking about intelligent life evoling on the planet we're talking about intelligent life finding and using the planet in question.

Destructionator XV · Post by **Destructionator XV** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:20 pm

Oh buggers, if what wikipedia said is right, I used the wrong number on Antares' luminosity. Abridged version of the math this time:
sqrt(6.5 x 10^4) = ~250 AU out for the hypothetical habitable planet, which increases it's year to about 900 earth years. Makes the situation even worse.

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:21 pm

That would be a hell of a long winter.

Ali Sama · Post by **Ali Sama** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:33 pm

frigidmagi wrote:We're not talking about intelligent life evoling on the planet we're talking about intelligent life finding and using the planet in question.

ah. the only cheap viable way of using this system would be in constructing artificial habitats(in orbit) and using the planet as a mine. (quick and easy)
thoguh If you really want to inhabit the plant. one way would be to creat free floating orbital structures to act like sun screens and alow the planet to have an artifical winter and summer cycle. It would be similar to how day and night are handled in a ring world or a dyson sphere.

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:37 pm

Actually there are a number of easier and cheaper ways to do it. Like since we're mining the place anyways... Live underground, suddenly there's less to build and less tech skills are needed. Not to mention less chance of dying messy because of a mirco metor impact.

Ali Sama · Post by **Ali Sama** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:40 pm

frigidmagi wrote:Actually there are a number of easier and cheaper ways to do it. Like since we're mining the place anyways... Live underground, suddenly there's less to build and less tech skills are needed. Not to mention less chance of dying messy because of a mirco metor impact.

you could live in the equadorial regions. no wether change but it would be livable.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:36 am

Why are we presuming there will be seasons? Is there something in the formation of Earth-size planets than means they will inevitably have a noteworthy axial tilt that nobody told me about so far?

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman · Fri Jul 14, 2006 6:14 am

Having seen the picture, I wonder what it is like to skim the surface of a celestial body as large as Antares....

Destructionator XV · Post by **Destructionator XV** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:05 am

Batman wrote:Why are we presuming there will be seasons?

Well, all the planets in the solar system have a tilt. It seems to be the more likely result.

Is there something in the formation of Earth-size planets than means they will inevitably have a noteworthy axial tilt that nobody told me about so far?

What caused the tilt in the earth is unknown, so there is no saying for sure, but some theories suppose it might have been ice at the poles changing the earth's shape, or maybe the moon and sun's gravity changing the tilt. Something to keep in mind is the tilt is still changing.

It just appears to be a characteristic of all planets.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:54 am

Given that that axial tilt can be as low as 3Â°(Jupiter/Venus) or even a whopping 0.01Â° (Mercury) I fail to see why that automatically means enough of an inclination to produce seasons worth mentioning.

Destructionator XV · Post by **Destructionator XV** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:05 am

Earth and Mars both have tilts of about 25 degrees, and both have polar ice caps.

Life supporting planets will need water, water means there will be ice. Concentrations of ice will change the mass distribution of the planet, which changes its centre of mass and moment of inertia. This is looking like a viable explaination, but I am not sure. Will try to do some math to show this happens in a while; I also intend to get a ball and start spinning it to test this hypothesis.

JEAP · Post by **JEAP** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:38 pm

I'm trying to rember a National Geographic special where they linked the development of the Earth to a clock. Earth formed quickly, if I remember correctly, gaining mass and its oceans within the first minutes. The Mars sized moon maker hit, I think, no more than half an hour in and reheated the planet.

I'm not sure if it was fast enough for our giants, though. The planet is just forming within the first few million years of the system and still hot for the first hundred million years.
Crust formation, erosion, and sediment recycling as early in its evolution as 4.35Gya
Accretion period of the planetary bodies which formed the Earth 4.55Gya
Wiki History of the Earth

Another thing the show mentioned is that most of life's history is in stramatolites. They spent several billion years doing photosynthesis and pulling massive quanties of iron out of the water.

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