Research

Virginia's Research (so far): FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE SUSTAINABILITY OF A PLANET
 * Humans need water, oxygen, food, gravity, a moderate temperature and protection from poisonous gases and high levels of radiation to survive.
 * The type of star and the distance of a planet from the star affect two major parts of the system that controls the surface temperature of a planet. The hotter a star is, the further the planet needs to orbit in order to maintain liquid water on its surface.
 * The atmosphere of a planet affects the planetary temperature system, which determines the temperature of that planet.
 * The amount of atmosphere on a planet depends on the planet's gravity, which is determined by the planet's mass.
 * The spherical shape of a planet changes the way that solar energy strikes the surface (compared to a flat surface). As the curvature of the surface increases, the angle at which the energy strikes increases, causing the intensity of the solar energy to decrease.
 * If Jupiter were in an elliptical orbit at 1 AU, it would cause a change in the Earth's orbit, which would have consequences for the planetary temperature system. (the orbit of one planet in the system will affect another.)

FACTORS THAT COULD BE ADJUSTED: - Shape & orbit of the planet -> Temperature - Distance from a star (eg: the sun) -> Temperature/ light - Distance from the moon or number of moons (or something else that exerts a force of gravity) -> amount of atmosphere - Percentage composition of atmosphere -> Temperature - Composition of planet

Shen's Research So Far: (Not going to be online 2morrow night so I'm going to post mine here. Move this to research section later?)

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Mercury rotates around the sun in such a way that the sun appears to stop and move backwards a bit. The video on this demonstrates this

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Most planets found are similar to Jupiter with an orbital period of less than 100 days(close to the sun). Estimated that many more smaller planets (like Earth) are more common.

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Orbit types It is physically possible for other orbits to occur. Albeit very rarely. so they can still draw it out. Just its gotta be in those shapes and then a composite of those shapes around multiple stars.

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3 star solar system are very possible. As well as 2 or 4 or 5 or 6 as so far found. Even more star solar systems could be possible.

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Binary star systems account for nearly 1/3 of the planets found (within 20 parasecs). Triple star systems account for only 1 planet. More than ½ of sun sized stars are in binary/triple systems

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more about exoplanets

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^just go through this entire site. Its awesome… SO MUCH INFORMATION T_T I can’t condense it all

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different possible orbits that could be in retrograd or otherwise.

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venus spins in retrograd rotation compared to other planets

Venus is also thought to have a lot of volcanos and an unstable crust that doesn’t flow enough for plate tectonics to occur.

It has over 90% CO2

Its magnetic protection field is generated by solar wind and its ionosphere (upper atmosphere) unlike earths which is generated from the core

Its winds move up to 60x the planets rotation speed

Theorized that runaway greenhouse gas effect due to evaporation of water is the cause of the thick atmosphere

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Uranus

Axle tilt of 97.77 degrees. Only small band in center (equator) experiences day night cycles similar to the near polar regions on earth. Uranus poles have 42 years of continuous sunlight followed by 42 years of continuous darkness

Axle tilt probably happened when a large planet sized object collided with Uranus and skewed its rotation

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Yarkovsky Effect

Asteroids spin slowly so one side gets a lot of thermal heat, then when it turns to the other side it re-emmits this radiation and it creates propulsion for the asteroid. This would allow it to hit planets and stuff.

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gravitational keyhole. []

^this shows that that gravity of a planet (Jupiter) can affect the asteroids incrementally until the has a resonance effect that builds it up and slingshots it away from the belt.

I think its called something like Resonance Orbit or something

Another way of moving an asteroid outta orbit is to collide it with another asteroid (no link atm)

What would happen if venus’s atmos is switched with mars atmos? Would mars be able to support life or become habitable?

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Moon formation

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Collision theory

Big planet similar to mars in size (Theia) hits earth and then breaks off to form the moon. It leaves behind a massive magma ocean on both the moon and earth.

Moon Tidal Forces

Moon’s relatively large size in comparison to the earth (1/4 diameter and 1/81 mass) creates large gravitational pulls. Since the earth spins faster than the moon these bulges (tides) are formed and then moved along the surface of the earth.

This creates torque on the earths orbit. Earths slows down as the moon is accelerating. The distance between earth and moon is ever increasing until both spin speeds match.

Moon can also have earthquakes

Its composition is very similar to that of the Earth. With a molton core but a much cooler one.