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Post by foolishwisdom on Dec 5, 2011 21:32:09 GMT -5
Located 600 light-years from Earth, we have the lovely planet, Kepler-22b. You can read more about it here: www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397233,00.asp |
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Post by Shane for Wax on Dec 5, 2011 21:45:21 GMT -5
I have heard about this kepler-22b before. Sounds delightful.
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Post by Shano on Dec 5, 2011 22:20:56 GMT -5
Um... The planet is quite not like the Earth, except the possibility of liquid water on its surface. If you assume similar density (they haven't found its mass yet, but similar density is a fair assumption for a rocky planet with that size) then with its 2.4 times larger radius you'd feel that much heavier... (quick explanation: mass goes like density*volume~density*(radius cubed), gravitational acceleration on the surface goes like mass/(radius squared) in other words if they have similar density gravity on it's surface will increase the same way the radius increases and this mean 2.4 times larger). I weigh 220 pounds on the surface of the Earth, there I'd weigh 520 pounds  Edit: So to feel like on the Earth you'd need it's density to be 2.4 times smaller or about 2 g/cm^3 which definitely would mean no rocks or metals (3ish and more than 6 respectively) in abundance. The lack of metals would be particularly troubling since it would mean no magnetic field and thus no ionized particles protection - one can imagine how bad that is... Of course all we are talking about here is whether humans'd like it there... |
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Post by foolishwisdom on Dec 5, 2011 22:29:42 GMT -5
I'm fairly certain they're talking about the environment.
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Post by DeadpanDoubter on Dec 5, 2011 22:35:26 GMT -5
Cue the discovery of squat, thick-boned extraterrestrials!
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Post by Vene on Dec 5, 2011 22:50:17 GMT -5
Edit: So to feel like on the Earth you'd need it's density to be 2.4 times smaller or about 2 g/cm^3 which definitely would mean no rocks or metals (3ish and more than 6 respectively) in abundance. The lack of metals would be particularly troubling since it would mean no magnetic field and thus no ionized particles protection - one can imagine how bad that is... Of course all we are talking about here is whether humans'd like it there... That sounds like a bad thing for life. |
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Post by brendanrizzo on Dec 6, 2011 12:25:35 GMT -5
Hm. So that makes two potential Earth-like planets then. Fundies are going to have to react to this eventually, even if this one probably can't support life.
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