Timeline for What would a habitable moon most probably look like?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 25, 2015 at 19:30 | comment | added | Attackfarm | @Taemyr "Or a radius of 2 million kilometer around an Earth that is twice as heavy as Earth." OP said nothing about this habitable moon needing to be orbiting a planet in our solar system. We've already discovered many "super-earths". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Earth | |
| Aug 25, 2015 at 1:36 | comment | added | Taemyr | @Attackfarm 1million km is possible. 2 million is not possible around any planet in our solar system closer to the sun than Jupiter. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 9:29 | comment | added | Attackfarm | ? I said 1-2 million km is possible. You just agreed 1-2 million is possible. At which point is my statement incorrect? | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 7:27 | comment | added | Taemyr | @Attackfarm That said, I should have checked my numbers before making the comment. I am only correct by luck. The Earth's hill sphere is 1.5 million kilometer, so an orbital radius of 1 million around the earth would be comfortably within the realms of possibility. Or a radius of 2 million kilometer around an Earth that is twice as heavy as Earth. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 7:25 | comment | added | Taemyr | @Attackfarm You stated "The largest orbital radius of a large moon in our solar system was close to 2 million km." But the oribital radius of a moon is not independent of the oribital radius of the parent body. A moon with a 2million kilometer orbital radius is not possible on any planet in the solar system closer to the sun than Jupiter. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 2:16 | comment | added | Attackfarm | @Taemyr That's completely irrelevant. We're not talking about Jupiter, as its moons are unlikely to ever support life or change their various characteristics (so no need for speculation). I think it's assumed from the question that we're speaking of a habitable fictional moon, so Jupiter's orbital radius is irrelevant as we have found gas giants with closer orbits than Jupiter. Gas Giant closer to its star than Mercury is to Sol: tinyurl.com/nv5ruxt | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 11:49 | comment | added | Taemyr | @Attackfarm It's not the absolute difference in km that is interesting. It's the difference relative to the average distance to the sun. If you are using 4million km difference, you have to compare that to a baselione of Jupiters mean orbital radius of about 770million km. Which means a variance of about 0.5% - or far less than than what the earth experiences. | |
| Jan 15, 2015 at 7:08 | comment | added | Attackfarm | Yes, though that changes little. That would occur over a much longer period, and as stated above, the orbital distance doesn't have as great of an effect on season compared to the angle of the body. | |
| Jan 15, 2015 at 0:03 | comment | added | Zan Lynx | Orbital distance will vary also by the variation of the gas giant's orbit. It won't be a perfect circle any more than Earth's orbit is. | |
| Nov 4, 2014 at 9:22 | comment | added | Attackfarm | Earth's moon is irrelevant and not discussed. The largest orbital radius of a large moon in our solar system was close to 2 million km. That's a differential of 4 million. That's pretty close to the Earth's 5 million km in a much more rapid time frame. The "large" impact I implied was "weakly chaotic weather patterns". I stand by this guesstimate. Also, the distance between Titan and the Sun is irrelevant, as we are speaking of a fictional goldilocks-zone moon, using Titan was a reference for orbital radius and gravitational effects. | |
| Oct 24, 2014 at 17:58 | comment | added | Octopus | Earth-moon distance is only 384 thousand kms. Saturn-Titan distance is 1.2 million kms. Earth's orbit changes as much as 5m km. I dont think the smaller fluctuations of orbit would have as large an impact as you imply. Also consider that in the case of Titan that is a much smaller proportion of its distance to the sun. | |
| Sep 20, 2014 at 22:06 | comment | added | Attackfarm | But we're talking about an orbit that changes 4 million km in a single week, and back again. We're talking about the entire differential in the Earth's orbit that takes 6 months to achieve being accomplished in a week. That's not nothing. I would imagine that it would have effects, but that the effects wouldn't be huge. Ergo mini-seasons. Like having an especially cold week in summer, a couple of mild weeks, and an especially hot week. Which might create some strong weather patterns, especially when considering the tidal heating and strong currents. | |
| Sep 20, 2014 at 19:10 | comment | added | Tim B | 4 million km is about 2.6% of Earth's orbital distance from the Sun. It's an interesting point I hadn't considered before but I don't think the changes would be enormous since as you say the Earth's orbital period also varies by that much and the difference in sun distance has less effect than seasonal variation does. | |
| Sep 20, 2014 at 16:16 | history | edited | Attackfarm | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 28 characters in body
|
| Sep 20, 2014 at 16:07 | review | First posts | |||
| Sep 20, 2014 at 16:18 | |||||
| Sep 20, 2014 at 16:06 | history | answered | Attackfarm | CC BY-SA 3.0 |