Monstrous Beauty
- Thread starter MattG
- Start date
I don't even recall ever seeing a "rocky" planet before in a procedurally-generated system. Rocky moons yes, planets no.
A few other oddities to point out.
For such a heavy planet, it's kind of small. Which must mean it's rather dense. If my maths is correct (and I'm happy to admit it might be wrong) I calculate a density of 84.66 grams per cubic centimetre - or an average density of four times greater than osmium, the densest substance on Earth. What kind of "rock" is that heavy?
Of course, that density figure does not include the atmosphere. For normal terrestrial planets, the mass of the atmosphere is negligible, so you can ignore it - the mass of Earth's atmosphere is only 0.000086% of the total mass of the Earth. But this planet is light-years away from being "normal". By my reckoning, if the Earth had a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere that thick, it would weigh 2000 times more than the Earth itself did. And this atmosphere is made of silica and iron, which is at least twice as heavy. I'd estimate that planet's atmosphere holds at least 90% of its mass.
Which could also explain where all the metal went. The metal's all evaporated into the atmosphere, leaving a cinder of... whatever it is that doesn't melt at 42,000 K and 2 billion atmospheres pressure.
This is one of those times where the stellar forge has gone far beyond its logical parameters. A real planet with those characteristics and an atmosphere that thick would be indistinguishable from a Class V gas giant, but the forge can't say "Oh, this atmosphere's too thick, I'll turn it into a gas giant now".
A few other oddities to point out.
For such a heavy planet, it's kind of small. Which must mean it's rather dense. If my maths is correct (and I'm happy to admit it might be wrong) I calculate a density of 84.66 grams per cubic centimetre - or an average density of four times greater than osmium, the densest substance on Earth. What kind of "rock" is that heavy?
Of course, that density figure does not include the atmosphere. For normal terrestrial planets, the mass of the atmosphere is negligible, so you can ignore it - the mass of Earth's atmosphere is only 0.000086% of the total mass of the Earth. But this planet is light-years away from being "normal". By my reckoning, if the Earth had a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere that thick, it would weigh 2000 times more than the Earth itself did. And this atmosphere is made of silica and iron, which is at least twice as heavy. I'd estimate that planet's atmosphere holds at least 90% of its mass.
Which could also explain where all the metal went. The metal's all evaporated into the atmosphere, leaving a cinder of... whatever it is that doesn't melt at 42,000 K and 2 billion atmospheres pressure.
This is one of those times where the stellar forge has gone far beyond its logical parameters. A real planet with those characteristics and an atmosphere that thick would be indistinguishable from a Class V gas giant, but the forge can't say "Oh, this atmosphere's too thick, I'll turn it into a gas giant now".
Awesome find. Like someone else said, I'd probably have overlooked how awesome it is too. Must pay more attention to nnn...ooh pretty.
Incredible find! The intense surface gravity is one thing, but that atmospheric pressure though...36 billion psi. That's like 25 times the estimated pressure inside Jupiter's core.
