Rhun
First Post
These days, you can find it everywhere.
Gliese 581d
- Thread starter Mark
- Start date
These days, you can find it everywhere.
Ed_Laprade
Adventurer
Not to disrupt the thread with an actual opinion on the piece or anything 
angel, but it sure doesn't sound habitable by Humans to me!
angel, but it sure doesn't sound habitable by Humans to me!
Rhun
First Post
Well, if you have a fetish for things going in your ear, I hear Seti Alpha V is the place to be.
Theo R Cwithin
I cast "Baconstorm!"
Well, when media uses a sensationlistic word like "habitable", they really mean "can probably support liquid water and is therefore potentially capable of supporting life more or less as we understand it". It's just that that phraseology doesn't fit within most people's attention sp---Not to disrupt the thread with an actual opinion on the piece or anything
Hey, is that Charlie Sheen??!!?!?
Theo R Cwithin
I cast "Baconstorm!"
This story also tickles me because I spent hours poring over data from Gliese 581 back in college. It's kind of cool (and maybe just a little frustrating 
) to see there was interesting stuff there all along... we just didn't quite have the technology to see it.
) to see there was interesting stuff there all along... we just didn't quite have the technology to see it.
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
did someone mention ice cream?
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
When they can travel straight through with nothing to impede them, then there's yet another a problem.
Thunderfoot
Hero
I still think they should start a terra-forming colony on Mars with that awesome Carbon Dioxide atmosphere plants should do well. And after a few dozen decades, we have our first oxygenated planet ripe for habitation.
Of course, nobody asked me.
Of course, nobody asked me.
Mars' atmosphere isn't awsome. It is nearly non-existent. At sea level, on Earth, atmospheric pressure is about 14.7 pounds per square inch. At surface level on Mars, it's a whopping 0.087 psi. As far as your body is concerned, that's like a vacuum. As far as most plants are concerned, it's like a freeze-drier.
If you raised the temperature on Mars a few degrees, and thus brought *all* the frozen carbon dioxide to gaseous state, you'd get a mean surface pressure about half of what you'd feel on the highest mountain on Earth. The greenhouse effect then takes over, melting water ice and generally bringing the climate to above water's freezing point for maybe half the surface. While you couldn't breathe unaided, you'd not need a pressure suit to go outside - just a breathing mask. And, then you can start bringing in plants - plankton being the biggest winner for O2 production.
Unfortunately, lack of a magnetic field causes some issues - making it more difficult to hold on to an atmosphere, especially one with water in it.
Similar Threads
