RE: Earths difficult?

From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Jan 31 2003 - 20:40:17 MST


--- Ramez Naam <mez@apexnano.com> wrote:
> From: Mike Lorrey [mailto:mlorrey@yahoo.com]
> > > Indeed, this work is dominated by selection effects. Our planet
> > > detection technology is best at detecting systems that have
> > > supermassive planets orbiting extremely close to their
> > > stars. Those
> > > types of systems are inherently incompatible with earth
> > > like planets.
> > > This study is based on a tautology.
> >
> > Not neccessarily inherently incompatible. We are entirely
> > unable to detect any terrestrial sized moons orbiting
> > supermassive planets, a number of which orbit at distances
> > within the green zone for their stars.
>
> Good point on the moons. Either way, the recent paper under
> discussion is rather bogus.

Yes, and it wouldn't really take that large a moon to allow an
Earth-like environment. Keep in mind our atmosphere is so thin because
of billions of years of carbon sequestration that followed an impact
event that stripped much of earth's original lithosphere, which now
forms most of the moon. Saturn's moon Titan has an atmosphere several
times denser than ours, and this is WAY out there, where the surface is
thick with precipitated atmosphere.

If a similar moon orbited a jovian planet in the green zone, it could
actually be rather small, especially since the gravitational influence
of the jovian planet would prevent the moon from becoming tectonically
dead, it would never die out like Mars did (which is smaller than some
Jovian moons).

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                                     - Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid

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