Can someone explain this planet?
- Thread starter nsgallup
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You might note it says 53.7% ice.
Most of the water probably is in solid state. Just the engine thinks its too warm to be called an Icy World. I think the game calls them water worlds as long as there is lots of water, regardless of temperature/pressure. I think Icy worlds are where some gasses have frozen, rather than water. Probably a misnomer if you take Ice to mean specifically frozen water rather than any frozen gas/liquid.
Not sure what sort of life could live there, but it does mention Water Geysers. What it might have is hot water geysers as i can imagine there is a lot of heat generated at the planet's core that pushes outwards to the surface. Extremophiles might survive around these. With that air pressure though, more complex lifeforms would have serious trouble developing.
Just my speculation, i am by no means an expert.
Most of the water probably is in solid state. Just the engine thinks its too warm to be called an Icy World. I think the game calls them water worlds as long as there is lots of water, regardless of temperature/pressure. I think Icy worlds are where some gasses have frozen, rather than water. Probably a misnomer if you take Ice to mean specifically frozen water rather than any frozen gas/liquid.
Not sure what sort of life could live there, but it does mention Water Geysers. What it might have is hot water geysers as i can imagine there is a lot of heat generated at the planet's core that pushes outwards to the surface. Extremophiles might survive around these. With that air pressure though, more complex lifeforms would have serious trouble developing.
Just my speculation, i am by no means an expert.
Isn't high surface pressure a good thing to have, if you want liquid water?
Pressure affects the state of a material as well as heat.
Under high pressure, water becomes ice, same as under low pressure, water becomes a gas.
Here is a vid that explains it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rog8ou-ZepE
No bug, just not enough pressure yet at that temperature to turn water in a solid. Google for "phase diagram water".
For the lazy: Wikipedia link. Must admit that I'm impressed how much science is applied in ED. Are they even checking the phase diagrams of planetary compounds/materials? Wow!
The water doesn't really need to be on the surface. I think there is speculation about water in caverns on Europa. e.g.
Uhhhhh... no?
Actually the most Advanced spéculations say there is a giant sea, approximatively 30 km Under its ice, with small parts of this planetocean being only 3km Under the surface.
Actually the most Advanced spéculations say there is a giant sea, approximatively 30 km Under its ice, with small parts of this planetocean being only 3km Under the surface.
The laws of physics and chemistry are fairly well represented in the game; chemical composition, for example, goes towards determining what the colour of a planet will look like.
That's not to say that the laws are perfect; you can get oddities where the stellar forge throws up a planet so weird, we simply don't know what a real-world planet like that would actually be like. My favourite examples are the "hot ice giants", more than six earth-masses, surface temperature well over 300K, zero atmosphere, and a surface described as "ice". I don't know what kind of "ice" exists under those conditions, but it ain't water; logically, a planet like that should be shrouded in a vast atmosphere of evaporated ice, like a giant comet.
That's not to say that the laws are perfect; you can get oddities where the stellar forge throws up a planet so weird, we simply don't know what a real-world planet like that would actually be like. My favourite examples are the "hot ice giants", more than six earth-masses, surface temperature well over 300K, zero atmosphere, and a surface described as "ice". I don't know what kind of "ice" exists under those conditions, but it ain't water; logically, a planet like that should be shrouded in a vast atmosphere of evaporated ice, like a giant comet.
Yes. It helps prevent the water from forming ice crystals. Ice is actually less dense than water, because the molecules need to be arranged in a specific pattern to form ice crystals, whereas water molecules are just jumbled in together any which way.
That's why ice floats.
Google finds this to help lend support:
At 330K and 1246atm pressure the natural state of H20 would be liquid.
The ice is probably at the polar caps like on Earth.
At 330K and 1246atm pressure the natural state of H20 would be liquid.
The ice is probably at the polar caps like on Earth.
At 1246 atmospheres, I seriously doubt there would be much of a temperature gradient across the planet at all; the poles will be just as warm as the equator. That's what Venus is like, and Venus has an atmosphere only 1/10th as thick as that.
So, a Baked Alaska then?
Well, you can see a closeup of a real "baked Alaska" planet I found in this old thread of mine. 1700 degrees kelvin, 16 atm pressure of pure water. It's still the funkiest thing I've ever seen on the system map.
I am not an astrophysicist so I might be saying something dumb
We don't know how far that planet is from the main star : couldn't find it in the info-pic. Wouldn't then the temperature gradient depend on the orbit of the planet around the star ? Venus is very close to the Sun which makes the temperature gradient more even ?
(I honestly don't know how much pressure influences the spread of temperatures on a planet)
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I am pretty sure water at a temperature 330K is liquid at 1atm. ... Since 330K is approximately 60Celsius....
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maybe it is the average surface temperature?
On another note it doesnt need to be pure water. Water mixed with some chemicals can have some weird properties.
The planet was rather far from the sun which is why the temperature was not too high, I guess based on that chart the water would just be around the line between gas and liquid, throw in some salts and maybe it stays liquid?
The game thinks the water is on the surface as that is what is displayed graphically when I flew to the planet. so it is not a giant Europa as cool as that would be, also tidal heating is not a factor as it is far from any other bodies. I think towards the core of the planet it would transition to solid ice due to excessive pressure.
Thanks for the responses btw
The game thinks the water is on the surface as that is what is displayed graphically when I flew to the planet. so it is not a giant Europa as cool as that would be, also tidal heating is not a factor as it is far from any other bodies. I think towards the core of the planet it would transition to solid ice due to excessive pressure.
Thanks for the responses btw
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