A curious binary pair: ammonia world + water world

marx

marx
I've found a rather interesting pair of planets: a binary pair that consists of an ammonia world and a water world. I thought I'd share them here on the forums, although since I haven't sold the data yet, and it's not very far from Sol, their names are redacted. I'll release the names later, once I've sold the data.
First, the pictures:


Basically, the ammonia planet has a considerable percentage of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, and not enough ammonia to actually make that into the "top three" gases. Meanwhile, the water world's atmosphere has a 57% majority of CO2, making it 101 K hotter than its binary pair. Not to mention that the surface pressure is 12.33 atm, compared to the ammonia world's 0.87 atm.

So here we can see the greenhouse effect well in play. It's little wonder that the highest concentration of CO2 in an Earth-like world (that I know of) is 0.3%. Although it could well be that there's a criteria there that too much carbon dioxide (the amount being dependent on the surface pressure) would disqualify the planet from Earth-like status, as the atmosphere needs to be human-breathable.
 

marx

marx
As promised, the name of the system: Col 359 Sector DX-K d8-51. It's only 1181 ly from Sol, so it doesn't take long to visit.
 
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Sapyx

Sapyx
marx said:
So here we can see the greenhouse effect well in play. It's little wonder that the highest concentration of CO2 in an Earth-like world (that I know of) is 0.3%. Although it could well be that there's a criteria there that too much carbon dioxide (the amount being dependent on the surface pressure) would disqualify the planet from Earth-like status, as the atmosphere needs to be human-breathable.
Click to expand...

Yes, too much CO2 is a disqualifier, because carbon dioxide is a toxic gas at high enough levels. That's because your lungs work on a gas diffusion principle: oxygen is more concentrated in the air than in your blood, so oxygen moves from air to blood. Carbon dioxide is more concentrated in your blood than in the air, so it moves out from the blood into the air.

The "air" in your exhaled breath is typically about 5% carbon dioxide. So if the air you inhale already has a high concentration of carbon dioxide, it doesn't matter how much oxygen is also in that air - you'll still suffocate, because your lungs can't get rid of the CO2 fast enough. Indeed, at 57% CO2, your lungs would be pumping much more CO2 into your blood than it would remove. An 0.3% CO2 atmosphere "passes" the Earth-like test, even though that's eight times higher than current Earth levels; most humans don't notice any ill effects at levels under 0.5%.

Scientists tell us that Earth once had a high carbon dioxide atmosphere. Which just goes to show, that for much of its history, Earth would not have been considered "Earth-like" by ED criteria.

As for the interesting solar system layout, I once found an Ammonia World moon around a large water world. Don't think I saved a screenshot of it. :(
 
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