 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · | ||
Posted on 11/13/2008 6:58:25 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Astronomers have long talked about a "habitable zone" around a star as being a confined and predictable region where temperatures were not too cold, not too hot, so that a planet could retain liquid water and therefore support life as we know it.
The zone may not be so fixed, it turns out. Some extrasolar planets that one might assume are too cold to host life could in fact be made habitable by a squishing effect from their stars, a new study found.
A planet's midsection gets stretched out by its star's gravity so that its shape is slightly more like a cigar than a sphere. Some planets travel non-circular, or elongated paths around their stars. As such a world moves closer to the star, it stretches more, and when it moves farther away, the stretching decreases.
When a planet's orbit is particularly oblong, the stretching changes are so great that its interior warms up in a process called tidal heating.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
|
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · | ||
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · | ||
There, fixed it. ;)
I kinda wonder if there might be life that hibernates on planets with wildly elliptical orbits. It would go underground during the trip out away from the star and reemerge during the close pass.
I suppose another option would be life that breeds and dies within a relatively short time but leaves eggs to wait out the inhospitable time.
It’s all interesting stuff fer ponderin.
zahadoom?
I’ve read science fiction stories about planets with aliens like that. “Cycle of Fire” by Hal Clement and “A Circus of Hells” by Poul Anderson come to mind.
Gravitational pull would sure cause problems for life I would think.
With all that shape changing, how bad would the earthquake situation be? Might seriously inhibit habitability for “civilized” beings.
With all that shape changing, how bad would the earthquake situation be? Might seriously inhibit habitability for “civilized” beings.
Likely no intelligent life....
And “The Twelfth Planet”? ;’)
Interesting thought. Maybe Antartica is Atlantis.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.