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Super-Earth Atmosphere May Be Mostly Water



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 2nd 10, 12:35 AM posted to sci.physics,sci.astro
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
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Default Super-Earth Atmosphere May Be Mostly Water

Super-Earth Atmosphere May Be Mostly Water | Wired Science | Wired.com
"The first direct measurement of a super-Earth exoplanet's atmosphere
finds the world is either shrouded in steam or covered in clouds.

"This is the first probe of an atmosphere of a super-Earth planet," said
exoplanet observer Jacob Bean of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, lead author of a paper describing the cloudy world in the
Dec. 2 Nature. "It's a real big step in the direction of doing this kind
of work for a planet that's potentially habitable."

The planet, called GJ 1214b, is the smallest planet yet to have its
atmosphere examined -- but it's just the latest in nearly a decade of
probing exoplanet atmospheres. The others have all been gas giants."
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...2&viewall=true
  #2  
Old December 2nd 10, 02:49 AM posted to sci.physics,sci.astro
Brad Guth[_3_]
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Default Super-Earth Atmosphere May Be Mostly Water

On Dec 1, 3:35*pm, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Super-Earth Atmosphere May Be Mostly Water | Wired Science | Wired.com
"The first direct measurement of a super-Earth exoplanet's atmosphere
finds the world is either shrouded in steam or covered in clouds.

"This is the first probe of an atmosphere of a super-Earth planet," said
exoplanet observer Jacob Bean of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, lead author of a paper describing the cloudy world in the
Dec. 2 Nature. "It's a real big step in the direction of doing this kind
of work for a planet that's potentially habitable."

The planet, called GJ 1214b, is the smallest planet yet to have its
atmosphere examined -- but it's just the latest in nearly a decade of
probing exoplanet atmospheres. The others have all been gas giants."http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/first-super-earth-atmospher...


Red dwarfs are actually ideal solar system hosting stars, as long as
they’re not too dwarf, and their planets not too gassy. Although
being an Earth sized moon of a gas giant planet (say 10 Mj) that’s
situated into orbiting a substantial red dwarf wouldn’t necessarily be
such a bad thing.

Exoplanet : GJ1214b (aka Super Earth)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GJ_1214_b
This exo-Eden at 17,000 km radii is certainly a whole lot bigger than
Earth, but packing much less average density and thereby offering a
gravity that’s only slightly greater than Venus, though supposedly
it’s not as hot, probably offers less dry land than Earth and best of
all it’s only 42 ly from us and has a stable dwarf sun of .16 Ms.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/201...iously-thought
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/201...t/%28page%29/2
“It's a cosmic embarrassment of riches – the universe appears to hold
three times the number of stars many astronomers might have estimated
only a year ago.”

JWST (if it ever gets deployed and we’re not as a nation bankrupted or
dead) should multiply that stellar accounting by at least another ten
fold, plus accounting for the hundreds of billions worth of rogue
items, of everything else including brown dwarfs and smaller that have
to exist within our galaxy plus other galaxies and whatever’s in
between. Even though of mostly red dwarfs that’ll be added to the
cosmic inventory thus far, with JWST as such should easily exceed the
supposed 80% missing mass, which makes for a cosmic collapse or
recycle as nearly a certainty because, there’s simply enough mass and/
or cosmic density to insure that eventually it’ll happen (again and
again).

If those red dwarfs amount to roughly 60% of all other stellar, spent
stars, molecular and planet mass, it’s going to be impressive once
JWST gets an even better look-see, as well as including whatever is
rogue between galaxies that’s just too cool or poorly illuminated for
most instruments to detect. Brown dwarfs plus everything else that’s
relatively cool and/or rogue plus stealth like neutron stars and black
holes could easily amount to the other 20%. But then a few others and
myself have been saying this all along.

~ BG
  #3  
Old December 3rd 10, 07:53 PM posted to sci.physics,sci.astro
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
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Posts: 1,692
Default Super-Earth Atmosphere May Be Mostly Water

On 01/12/2010 8:49 PM, Brad Guth wrote:
Red dwarfs are actually ideal solar system hosting stars, as long as
they’re not too dwarf, and their planets not too gassy. Although
being an Earth sized moon of a gas giant planet (say 10 Mj) that’s
situated into orbiting a substantial red dwarf wouldn’t necessarily be
such a bad thing.


I do think that a substantial moon orbiting a gas giant planet around a
red dwarf would be the most practical way of getting life around a red
dwarf. You wouldn't need an Earth sized moon, as the gas giant's
magnetic field would provide most of the protection against solar winds.
As we see in our own solar system, a Titan-sized moon could be
sufficient for life. We might find solitary life-bearing planets like
our own less common, but life-bearing moons around gas giants more
common. All of the factors that made Earth ideal for bearing life are
not there for all rocky worlds, one just has to look at Venus and Mars.

Yousuf Khan
 




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