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The quest for the nearest inhabitable worlds
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| apenpaap | Date: Saturday, 22.09.2012, 02:14 | Message # 31 |
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Antarctica
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| I remember hearing the snowball Earth period might've been caused somehow by all the continents of the planet roughly lying in a ring around the equator, leaving the temperate zones and poles as oceans. I can't quite remember how this caused snowball Earth, but I'm pretty sure the positive feedback of an increasing albedo when more sea freezes was part of it.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
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| smjjames | Date: Saturday, 22.09.2012, 02:22 | Message # 32 |
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| Quote It's also possible that an increase in CO2 could actually lead to a decrease in CO2. Increased temperature could lead to increased evaporation and therefore precipitation, which would start to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, as would the increased wave action likely on the surface of oceans. This would not cool the planet to Snowball levels though, only stabilize the CO2 levels. This is what is thought could have happened after the end of a Snowball Earth period.
Or in the case of the Carboniferous period to a lesser extent, the carbon gets locked up into the plants which die, get buried and over time turn into the fossil fuels we are burning today.
And yes off topic post is off topic, but we're still talking about oxygen atmospheres.
Let's end the offtopicness here 
On a thread related note, has anybody managed to get the Alpha Centauri system to generate with all procedural planets? (tbh though, it would be cool to see what it would have if the custom planets weren't there). There was a mention that someone tried to do that in another thread in this section, but there doesn't seem to be any other mentions about it.
Edited by smjjames - Saturday, 22.09.2012, 03:48 |
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| Watsisname | Date: Saturday, 22.09.2012, 08:26 | Message # 33 |
 Galaxy Architect
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| At 32pc (~100LY) this is not as close to Earth as some others posted, but I think it's a pretty neat find. Check it out:
Overview of parameters:
Temperate Terra With Life
Suns: Binary. Planet orbits a K0 Orange Dwarf, with an M1 Red Dwarf companion.
0.62 Earth radii, 0.24 Earth masses. Given that the planet is 5.3 billion years old, I'd think it would have long since lost its interior heat and thus ceased plate tectonics, but maybe radioactivity could keep it going.
Length of Day: 20.75 hours. Not too shabby!
Moons: Two. A tiny (.2% mass of our moon) selena in a 1.6 day orbit, and a cute little asteroid in a 3 day orbit.
Axis Tilt: 103°. Ouch. That's got to be unfortunate for the climate. 
Despite being a binary system, the temperature range is pretty comfortable, (if you can get past the crazy seasons)! Minimum is about 284K (when the stars are at apoapsis) to 303K (at periapsis).
Atmospheric Pressure is near Earth-identical at 0.99atm, and surface gravity is a most agreeable 0.61g. Bounce bounce! 
Sky Color: Delightfully blue.
Water Coverage: Lots of seas and lakes. I'm guessing 30 to 40% of the surface is water?
Terrain: A lot of mountains! (Which would suggest recent or ongoing tectonics.)
Biosphere: Lots of green. Forests and grasslands perhaps?
Water color: Green? Yeughhh. 
So yeah, it's arguably not ideal, but almost there! I wouldn't mind visiting. :P
Edited by Watsisname - Saturday, 22.09.2012, 08:32 |
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| smjjames | Date: Sunday, 23.09.2012, 19:45 | Message # 34 |
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| The primary, Rho Coronae Borealis is a G2 main sequence about 56.8 LY away, this star is very much like our sun, just a bit brighter and about a billion years older.
The planet (or rather, moon of a gas giant) is actually smaller than Mars, but it has a dense atmosphere and is somewhat warmer than Earth. The only major problem would be it's almost 5.5 Earth day long day. Might make a nice vacation world though with the lower gravity.
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