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Originally posted by ManFromEurope
Obviously those planets are only created to fill up all that unused space, as some god created only us.. Or do you beg to differ, religion?
Originally posted by OliArtist
I can't believe we are all still sitting here on this over-crowded and vulnerable rock! The number one priority for humanity should be to colonise other planets, and if there are this many then we are idiots if we don't. As long as we sit here like this we are either going to destroy ourselves or get destroyed.
We are so stupid.
Originally posted by Riakennor
Forgive me if I'm wrong but it's not necessarily just to do with mass, but also the diameter of the planet.
If a planet had twice the mass of Earth AND twice the diameter, the gravity on the surface would be the same ?
Originally posted by eriktheawful
Originally posted by Riakennor
Forgive me if I'm wrong but it's not necessarily just to do with mass, but also the diameter of the planet.
If a planet had twice the mass of Earth AND twice the diameter, the gravity on the surface would be the same ?
No. Because gravity exists due to the mass of an object. The more mass it has, the more gravity it has.
Mass is dependent upon an object's density, not volume (size). You can test this yourself right in your own home:
Take a glass and fill it halfway with water.
Now take another glass that is exactly the same as the first, and fill it half way with copper or zinc BB pellets. Left each in a hand. The glass with the metal will be heavier than the one with water, even though you filled it approx. the same size as the water, because copper or zinc is denser then water, so their mass is more.
Rocks and metals have different densities. Some rocks are very dense, some are not so dense. Same goes for metals. If a rocky planet has a lot more material such as very dense rocks and metals, as compared to a planet that is the same size, but has much lighter rocks and metals, then the gravity on that planet will be weaker than on the first planet.
Another good example of this is Saturn: even though it's a LOT bigger than our planet, it's density is light enough that if you could find an ocean big enough, it would float in it. If you had magic shoes that could let you walk on Saturn (you can't because it's a gas giant), you would actually only weigh about 91% of what you do here.
So it's a bigger planet, but you'd actually weigh LESS on Saturn than you do here on Earth.
It can be a hard concept to wrap your brain around, but all you have to remember is: the strength of gravity depends on 2 things: Size and Density. Not just size alone.
Originally posted by II HAL II
reply to post by ManFromEurope
Not wanting to bring religion into this but yes.... I do beg to differ.
Way too many hot topics on ATS at the moment.
Oh... I've worked out it would only take circa 100,000 years to travel 30 light years using a Photonic Drive.... thats around 1,250ish generations of man. So if we leave now, my great great great x 1,248 grandson would get there and have a choice of 100 super-Earths to choose from. Need to make a light speed craft and get there in 30 years me thinks, I want to see what they look like too.
"We already have ideas to find traces of life on these planets," commented co-researcher Stephane Udry from Geneva Observatory.