Questions tagged [gas-giants]
For questions relating to gas giants: large planets composed of gases (usually mostly hydrogen and helium).
88
questions
3
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2answers
365 views
Is my binary planet realistic?
I had this idea for a terrestrial planet-ice giant binary system. Both planets had their origin inside the outer solar system but were moved into the habitable zone by a passers-by black hole.
The ...
9
votes
2answers
266 views
Gaseous moons: Are they possible?
Our solar system has 4 gas giants(Uranus and Neptune are technically ice giants, but who cares), which share nearly 200 moons amongst them. Yet all of these moons, even the giant ones like Ganymede, ...
4
votes
3answers
148 views
Would a laser relay work better on the surface of an airless body or in orbit?
Background:
In the early 22nd century, a laser station has been established on Uranus' moon, Cordelia to shoot chunks of frozen deuterium into the inner solar system for fusion fuel. However, the ...
4
votes
0answers
109 views
How could a station on Cordelia be designed in order to extract helium-3 and deuterium from Uranus? [closed]
Some details:
At the end of the 21st century, the first expedition to Uranus launches to mine helium-3 and deuterium from its atmosphere. The plan involves a tether dangled into the upper atmosphere ...
5
votes
2answers
134 views
What conditions to make this habitable moon plausible?
I'm trying to figure out how to make this gas giant moon habitable.
Here are the factors involved:
Moon is sub-temperate, mountainous with a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, with the planet being mainly ...
10
votes
6answers
857 views
How could a breathable ultra-high pressure atmosphere form?
Some background: I'm developing a world that could, theoretically, be inhabitable by humans (with a high enough recruitment success to at least keep a stable population), randomly determining ...
3
votes
1answer
83 views
Properties of an Argon based gas giant
I am writing a novel where a habitable moon orbits a purple gas giant. In looking here and elsewhere I'm finding it incredibly hard to get a sense of the elements-breakdown of elements that would be ...
5
votes
3answers
581 views
Is it possible for a moon to stay on the same side of its planet relative to the sun?
I'm building an earthlike world that has a moon orbiting a gas giant. Is it possible for the moon to always be between the planet and the sun? Also, is it possible for a moon to rotate around its own ...
3
votes
2answers
185 views
General characteristics of an “aircraft” for gas-planet atmospheres?
In the future gas giants, ice giants, mini neptunes and gas dwarfs have been colonised. The colonisers use either hot hydrogen or vacuum in rigid ballons to keep their cloud cities up in the endless ...
2
votes
1answer
69 views
How changing planetary ring affects the migration of terrestrial fauna?
Imagine a gas giant as massive as Jupiter has a enormous planetary ring which will expand and contract throughout its orbit around a main sequence star.
Then there is a moon as massive as Mars and ...
2
votes
3answers
208 views
How to get a habitable moon without too long day-night cycle?
It appears that there are gas giants in habitable zones of stars, and likely some of them should have moons that are big enough to have an Earth-like world, so that part should be plausible enough.
...
5
votes
4answers
253 views
Can a Jupiter-Like Gas Giant Have Deep, Dark Storms?
For this question, I was inspired by the following image of the "Jupiter Abyss":
What I want to know is, can a Jupiter-like gas giant have thousands of giant black storms, kind of like what I've ...
3
votes
2answers
167 views
Harvesting Energy from Gas Giants
In my world, humans live on a moon of a gas giant that has extreme weather conditions. They also:
have crystals that can store energy.
possess the ability to make floating islands (on which they can ...
-2
votes
1answer
176 views
Is it possible to calculate how long a moon takes to orbit a gas giant?
if it takes the moon 6 months to pass through the gas giants shadow? Assume it is distant enough to not be tidally locked. The gas giant is 112.5 AU from the star. The star is 55 solar masses. It ...
3
votes
3answers
243 views
Gas Giant with solid surface
I have the feeling the answer to this will come down to ''impossible'' but let's ask anyway to be sure.
We know gas Giants have no solid surface and if you tried to land on one you would fall into ...
7
votes
1answer
195 views
Heating a gas giant's moons in a red dwarf system
Being new, this is my first question. I've read some other posts that gave me valuable insight, but I still have some questions.
First, some specifics:
Star: red dwarf. 80 x jupiter mass. 3 billion ...
1
vote
1answer
181 views
Can liquid water exist on the moons of this gas giant?
This is an edited hopefully more focused version of a question I asked a while ago. I made the mistake of asking too many questions the first time so I’ll try and be a bit more focused here.
I drew ...
8
votes
1answer
383 views
Brown Dwarf Star vs Gas Giant as parent for habitable moon
I seek to build a habitable moon of a giant planet, thus I looked at the Rouche Limit Equation to figure out how to get the biggest possible Hill Sphere for my moon to exist in.
$r_H = a(1-e)\sqrt[3]{...
13
votes
1answer
1k views
How to explain planetary rings pulsating?
A spacecraft enters an unnamed system and spotted a gas giant with a pulsating planetary ring, it glows bright intermittently. What natural phenomenon could be responsible for such brilliant display? ...
2
votes
2answers
275 views
The Mighty Generation Ship Jupiter
"The planet moves."
Inspired by this link in a comment from Gryphon here, I also see the concept in this question.
We've colonized the moons of Jupiter adjusted their orbits to our satisfaction (to ...
7
votes
2answers
309 views
Temperature and climate “under” the gas giant in a tidally locked moon
I've begun the laborious (but fun!) process of putting another world together.
Known constraints include:
Habitable, (super-)Earth-sized, tidally-locked moon to a gas giant; the giant, where visible,...
4
votes
1answer
286 views
Mining Metallic Hydrogen
The Hegemony is in need of superconductors for their fleets of stratospheric craft (stratocraft for short) as well as many, many, many other applications. I recently read metallic hydrogen is a ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
Life on a gas giant?
I know of the conceptualized "Sinkers", "Floaters" and "Hunters" that Carl Sagan and Edwin Salpeter of Cornell conceived of - as possible life forms that might inhabit a gas giant. At the time they ...
28
votes
12answers
9k views
Would gas giants work as waste disposal sites?
In my novel, the many moons of Jupiter and Saturn have been colonized, but I'm running into some logistical problems - namely, waste disposal. My first instinct was to dump it on-moon; while this is ...
3
votes
1answer
152 views
Could this moon of a gas giant orbiting a neutron star support life?
Making the following assumptions:
1. The three moons of the Gas Giant are safe enough distances from and massive enough not to pull each other apart or send themselves careening into the void.
2. ...
4
votes
2answers
104 views
What are some plausible formation explanations of a non-hot “Fluffy” Gas Giant planet?
So, in my research and preparation for the question I asked immediately before this one, I was introduced to the concept of "fluffy" gas giants, gas giants with significantly lower density than would ...
3
votes
1answer
457 views
Feasible star + planet + moon combo? Did I miss anything that makes this system wildly unstable or otherwise impossible?
Here's what I've come up with:
The star:
A main sequence star, roughly a sol analogue
Younger than Sol (say 3-3.5 billion years old)
roughly the same starting mass as Sol, but has had less time to ...
10
votes
3answers
570 views
What is the maximum orbital time for my moon around my planet?
I fear the math involved is beyond my capabilities on this one. I have what I consider to be more than a Layman's understanding of the physics involved, and I believe I can follow the math well ...
7
votes
3answers
225 views
Are there any plausible 'alternative' methods of planetary formation?
The selected answer on this question provides an extremely good, and detailed, description of what is generally accepted to be the main (only?) way a terrestrial planet can form, i.e. through ...
12
votes
2answers
662 views
What kind of Gas Giant has a “safe zone” between the radiation from a star and the radiation from a gas giant planet?
This is a progression from my first question, here
(if this is too similar to my original question, please let me know of a better way to address this, as I am not getting the answers I need on that ...
16
votes
1answer
790 views
Can a habitable moon rely on the magnetosphere of its parent planet for radiation protection?
Science-based answers, please.
Key points:
the main concern is radiation protection for sustainability of human life (and accompanying plant and animal life ecosystems, whether earth-like or not). ...
7
votes
1answer
76 views
Which side of a tidally locked moon experiences higher radiation?
Looking most specifically regarding the moons around Saturn, Jupiter, and Uranus. I've been unable to get a concrete answer on this through various sources. I've actually read several articles briefly ...
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vote
2answers
140 views
Added Difficulties of Space Flight on Gas Giant Moons?
What additional difficulties might the inhabitants of a gas giant moon face when attempting to launch spacecraft beyond their moon's orbit, especially beyond the planetary system? I presume that they'...
2
votes
1answer
393 views
What would be the composition of a habitable gas giant
Lets imagine a gas giant called Eurus.
It would have a diameter a bit smaller than saturn, but a gravity weaker than earth (92% earth's gravity). It would also be located 15 000 000 km away from its ...
1
vote
1answer
133 views
Calculating Radiation Zones of Gas Giants and the Effects on Its Moons? [closed]
How would I determine the radiation fields, if any, of a gas giant planet? What effect would this have on its moons if they have magnetic fields like the Earth does, and are inhabited?
-1
votes
1answer
121 views
Calculating The Albedo of a Gas Giant With Earth-Like Moon(s) [closed]
How can you determine how bright a gas giant would be, especially if it has inhabited moons with an Earth-like atmosphere?
0
votes
2answers
155 views
How Large Would A Gas Giant Appear To Be To The Inhabitants Of An Earth-like Moon Orbiting it? [duplicate]
How large would a gas giant realistically appear to be on an Earth-like moon? I think a movie or two has portrayed them as very large, but that's an exaggeration, right? Depending on the size and ...
-1
votes
1answer
155 views
Would An Earth-Like Moon Be Tidally Locked? [duplicate]
Could a moon of similar size to the Earth orbiting a gas giant be tidally locked compared to its host planet? What effect would that have on the moon, especially the biosphere?
9
votes
2answers
305 views
How do I design the solar transit of a hot Jupiter?
BACKGROUND
The world I'm designing currently has a gas giant of the type known as a hot Jupiter orbiting close to the sun and causing solar flares. I would like the inhabitants of my Earth-like world ...
1
vote
2answers
187 views
Is this gas giant possible?
I want to create a gas giant planet. The parameters I would like for it to have are:
It should have a large layer of gas within its atmosphere that living creatures including humans can survive and ...
34
votes
7answers
6k views
Could you float a boat on a gas giant?
A futuristic entrepreneur wants to start a cruise line company and needs to build a cruise ship that will not only float on a gas giant, but be habitable throughout a 7 day trip (for the uber-rich of ...
7
votes
3answers
225 views
How can perpetually-gliding lifeforms develop space travel?
Malgrovian gliders inhabit the middle layers of the atmosphere of Malgrov, a gas dwarf. They spend most of their life gliding, preying on giant balloon-like floating lifeforms. When they get older, ...
1
vote
1answer
100 views
Building a drone for gas giant flight: Lightning considerations
A previous question's answer established that naturally occurring positrons could be gathered through positron-emitting isotopes. I've started looking into means that these isotopes could be gathered ...
6
votes
3answers
813 views
Life on a rogue planet
I am imagining a special ecosystem on a rogue planet (a planet that wanders throughout space without orbiting a star or other heavenly object) but I would need your help to fill in the gaps and ...
9
votes
3answers
628 views
Details needed for day cycle of lunar world orbiting a gas giant
I'm writing a science fiction story set on a moon orbiting a gas giant. I want to understand how the world's day night cycle would appear from its surface and how the world might be affected by this ...
3
votes
2answers
126 views
How to determine the temperature of an Earth-like planet with two major heat sources?
Ghyesh is an Earth-like habitable moon that orbits a gas giant in a system with a sun significantly larger and hotter than Earth's. Both the gas giant and the sun emit an equal level of heat to the ...
2
votes
2answers
660 views
Is this habitable moon possible?
I've already asked a similar question but i'd like more details.
This moon would be orbiting around a saturn like planet without rings.
The host planet would be located in the habitable zone, ...
10
votes
5answers
284 views
Effects of regular prolonged eclipses on environment
What would be the effect on climate on an Earth-like moon of a gas giant, which experienced regular ("monthly") total solar eclipses (by its gas giant parent) lasting approx. 40 hours.
I'm trying to ...
8
votes
3answers
671 views
Captured Earth-Like Moons around Gas Giants
Is there a limit (and if so, what is it) to the size (mass) of terrestrial planet that could be "captured" as a moon by a migrating gas giant?
I'm writing a novel where a colony ship crashes on such ...
9
votes
2answers
1k views
Smallest Black Hole to 'heat' a Gas Giant
So I want a large power source to heat my new real estate on the Jovian moons. I create a micro black hole (MBH), maybe a few kg, maybe more and drop it into Jupiter. I expect the following to happen [...
