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JamieB
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I see what you're going for ("fire planet" -- the planet is basically in a non-stop chemical fire, not fusion) and really I have no idea if that's realistic as a heat source to the moons. (I suspect the answer is "no". The total output of heat from the planet, but then fractionally how much of that actually hits a particular moon, and to what extent can it maintain that kind of fire over millions of years.....eh....)

But I feel like you could skip all this and just ask if Virgo can heat itself, and there I think we have good evidence that the answer is yes, with the evidence between Titan around Saturn and Europa around Jupiter.

Europa gets heated by the tidal forces of Jupiter. I'm not sure if Vulkan has enough mass for that but that's probably okay because Titan gets heated by its own core, believed to be rich in radioactive materials (we get some of that on Earth, too).

So all you really need is for Virgo to have perhaps an unusual amount of radioactive materials in its core, and then put it as close as possible to orbiting Vulkan, and between radioactivity and tidal forces, it can heat itself, no emissions from Vulkan required.

"Light" I'm less sure about but maybe the Vulkan idea can still work here: it doesn't need to emit a ton of heat, which implies to me a heck of a nonstop planetary fire, but it does need to emit light somehow. Bioluminescence? Maybe it really does have a nonstop fire in some upper atmospheric level, and that's enough to emit useful light? Maybe Virgo has a lot of bioluminescence?

I feel like you can run with the idea, anyway.

Vulkan has a non-stop fire going on. It Is A Mystery Of The Universe. Virgo is heating primarily internally, but there's "Vulkan-light" during the day (perhaps similar to a full moon on Earth, but really it can be whatever you want).

I see what you're going for ("fire planet" -- the planet is basically in a non-stop chemical fire, not fusion) and really I have no idea if that's realistic. (I suspect the answer is "no". The total output of heat from the planet, but then fractionally how much of that actually hits a particular moon, and to what extent can it maintain that kind of fire over millions of years.....eh....)

But I feel like you could skip all this and just ask if Virgo can heat itself, and there I think we have good evidence that the answer is yes, with the evidence between Titan around Saturn and Europa around Jupiter.

Europa gets heated by the tidal forces of Jupiter. I'm not sure if Vulkan has enough mass for that but that's probably okay because Titan gets heated by its own core, believed to be rich in radioactive materials (we get some of that on Earth, too).

So all you really need is for Virgo to have perhaps an unusual amount of radioactive materials in its core, and then put it as close as possible to orbiting Vulkan, and between radioactivity and tidal forces, it can heat itself, no emissions from Vulkan required.

"Light" I'm less sure about but maybe the Vulkan idea can still work here: it doesn't need to emit a ton of heat, which implies to me a heck of a nonstop planetary fire, but it does need to emit light somehow. Bioluminescence? Maybe it really does have a nonstop fire in some upper atmospheric level, and that's enough to emit useful light? Maybe Virgo has a lot of bioluminescence?

I feel like you can run with the idea, anyway.

Vulkan has a non-stop fire going on. It Is A Mystery Of The Universe. Virgo is heating primarily internally, but there's "Vulkan-light" during the day (perhaps similar to a full moon on Earth, but really it can be whatever you want).

I see what you're going for ("fire planet" -- the planet is basically in a non-stop chemical fire, not fusion) and really I have no idea if that's realistic as a heat source to the moons. (I suspect the answer is "no". The total output of heat from the planet, but then fractionally how much of that actually hits a particular moon, and to what extent can it maintain that kind of fire over millions of years.....eh....)

But I feel like you could skip all this and just ask if Virgo can heat itself, and there I think we have good evidence that the answer is yes, with the evidence between Titan around Saturn and Europa around Jupiter.

Europa gets heated by the tidal forces of Jupiter. I'm not sure if Vulkan has enough mass for that but that's probably okay because Titan gets heated by its own core, believed to be rich in radioactive materials (we get some of that on Earth, too).

So all you really need is for Virgo to have perhaps an unusual amount of radioactive materials in its core, and then put it as close as possible to orbiting Vulkan, and between radioactivity and tidal forces, it can heat itself, no emissions from Vulkan required.

"Light" I'm less sure about but maybe the Vulkan idea can still work here: it doesn't need to emit a ton of heat, which implies to me a heck of a nonstop planetary fire, but it does need to emit light somehow. Bioluminescence? Maybe it really does have a nonstop fire in some upper atmospheric level, and that's enough to emit useful light? Maybe Virgo has a lot of bioluminescence?

I feel like you can run with the idea, anyway.

Vulkan has a non-stop fire going on. It Is A Mystery Of The Universe. Virgo is heating primarily internally, but there's "Vulkan-light" during the day (perhaps similar to a full moon on Earth, but really it can be whatever you want).

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JamieB
  • 7.6k
  • 24
  • 39

I see what you're going for ("fire planet" -- the planet is basically in a non-stop chemical fire, not fusion) and really I have no idea if that's realistic. (I suspect the answer is "no". The total output of heat from the planet, but then fractionally how much of that actually hits a particular moon, and to what extent can it maintain that kind of fire over millions of years.....eh....)

But I feel like you could skip all this and just ask if Virgo can heat itself, and there I think we have good evidence that the answer is yes, with the evidence between Titan around Saturn and Europa around Jupiter.

Europa gets heated by the tidal forces of Jupiter. I'm not sure if Vulkan has enough mass for that but that's probably okay because Titan gets heated by its own core, believed to be rich in radioactive materials (we get some of that on Earth, too).

So all you really need is for Virgo to have perhaps an unusual amount of radioactive materials in its core, and then put it as close as possible to orbiting Vulkan, and between radioactivity and tidal forces, it can heat itself, no emissions from Vulkan required.

"Light" I'm less sure about but maybe the Vulkan idea can still work here: it doesn't need to emit a ton of heat, which implies to me a heck of a nonstop planetary fire, but it does need to emit light somehow. Bioluminescence? Maybe it really does have a nonstop fire in some upper atmospheric level, and that's enough to emit useful light? Maybe Virgo has a lot of bioluminescence?

I feel like you can run with the idea, anyway.

Vulkan has a non-stop fire going on. It Is A Mystery Of The Universe. Virgo is heating primarily internally, but there's "Vulkan-light" during the day (perhaps similar to a full moon on Earth, but really it can be whatever you want).