[qazwsx]

****ing religion/climate change debates, buggering up interesting threads, pisses me off D:<

[redsniper]

What color would plants be on Gliese?

[qazwsx]

Octarine

[watsisname]

Black, actually, in order to take full advantage of the mostly infrared sunlight.

Interesting article on it here

[Topgun]

Aren't most of the surface stations in the U.S. absolute crap when it comes to positioning, such as being right next to asphalt, A/C exhaust vents, and other heat sources?

Using surface stations is stupid anyway. The only reliable way to tell if the world is heating up is with satellite data that includes the temperature of the oceans. Unfortunately, we only have that data since the 70's and 80's, and thats way too early to tell if global warming is factual or not.

[Topgun]

which is estimated at 3 to 4 times more massive than the earth.

Also interesting is that it is very probably tidally locked with the star (like the moon is with the earth), meaning it has one side which is perpetually in daylight, while the other side is in perpetual night.  This implies a scorching hot dayside, a frozen cold nightside, and a region in between where the temperature is just right to maintain liquid water and possibly even life.  Would make a great setting for a sci-fi, wouldn't it?

So basically its not habitable at all
At least not for us anyway.

[General Battuta]

which is estimated at 3 to 4 times more massive than the earth.

Also interesting is that it is very probably tidally locked with the star (like the moon is with the earth), meaning it has one side which is perpetually in daylight, while the other side is in perpetual night.  This implies a scorching hot dayside, a frozen cold nightside, and a region in between where the temperature is just right to maintain liquid water and possibly even life.  Would make a great setting for a sci-fi, wouldn't it?

So basically its not habitable at all
At least not for us anyway.

le wrong!

Read what you quoted again.

[watsisname]

Well.... probably not habitable for us, yes.  But who cares, it's by far the best chance of life outside the solar system we've found so far.

AND SRSLY, BLACK PLANTS!  BLACK PLANTS PLACK BLANTS BLAACK BLANTS.  BLAACK PLANTS, BLACK PLAAAANTS, BLACKLANTS, BLACKPANTS, BACKPLANTS, BACKPLANS, BLAHBLAMS B:ABJE<S

[redsniper]

Actually I read somewhere that even though it's more massive than Earth, it's also larger (diameter-wise) so the acceleration due to gravity on the surface isn't that far off from Earth's. Though that might have just been someone's wishful thinking, I don't know.

[Klaustrophobia]

if they know the mass and diameter of the planet, that's a really basic calculation.

[Nuke]

i think gravity follows the inverse square law. so if you have a known surface gravity acceleration value, its not hard to extrapolate gravity at whatever altitude. i dont know how to figure out what a planet's gravity is with only its mass and and radius. i do know the density of a planet is the major factor of how hard gravity pulls, a massive planet like saturn only pulls 0.9 gs. even though it has way more mass than earth does.

[redsniper]

Oh yeah, I know. I just don't know if we can tell the diameters of planets so far away. I think I saw it in a forum post somewhere, I just don't remember if it was fact or speculation.

[karajorma]

Try it yourselves.

Using the figures they give in the article (around 1.3x diameter of Earth) and the same density as Earth 5.5g/cm³ I ended up with a surface gravity of around 1.3G. Perfectly tolerable.

[Klaustrophobia]

i think gravity follows the inverse square law. so if you have a known surface gravity acceleration value, its not hard to extrapolate gravity at whatever altitude. i dont know how to figure out what a planet's gravity is with only its mass and and radius. i do know the density of a planet is the major factor of how hard gravity pulls, a massive planet like saturn only pulls 0.9 gs. even though it has way more mass than earth does.

Newton's law of gravity.  F= G*[m1*m2/r^2].  divide by m1 and you get A=G*M/r^2

as for how they figured out its radius, that probably depends on how they found the planet (if the article says i don't remeber).  if the planet's orbital plane is in line with us, the radius can be determined by the dimming of the star as the planet passes in front.  otherwise, since they determined it is a rocky, earth-like planet they may have done the same as kara and assumed a similar density to get an estimate of size (knowing mass from observing its orbit).

[watsisname]

Yeah, the planet was discovered with the radial velocity technique (can't use transit method since the orbital inclination doesn't bring it in front of the star from our vantage point -- unfortunate), so they only know the mass (3 to 4 Earth masses iirc) and orbital period.  They can come up with estimates for the radius by guessing what the planet's composition is like and then applying physics to figure out how much it'd be compressed.

[JGZinv]

This implies a scorching hot dayside, a frozen cold nightside, and a region in between where the temperature is just right to maintain liquid water and possibly even life.  Would make a great setting for a sci-fi, wouldn't it?

*ahem*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_planets_%28R%E2%80%93S%29#Ryloth

Covered in the YJK books.

[watsisname]

The Nightlands have an eerie beauty, strange crystal-like plants have evolved here, glowing from within, having to produce their own light from which to make energy due to the absence of natural light.

Producing energy from which to make energy?  lolwut

[Solatar]

Perpetual Motion plant?

[JGZinv]

It has a sister species that is used as a light fixture.... known as the Clapper Fern. 

[Nuke]

i think gravity follows the inverse square law. so if you have a known surface gravity acceleration value, its not hard to extrapolate gravity at whatever altitude. i dont know how to figure out what a planet's gravity is with only its mass and and radius. i do know the density of a planet is the major factor of how hard gravity pulls, a massive planet like saturn only pulls 0.9 gs. even though it has way more mass than earth does.

Newton's law of gravity.  F= G*[m1*m2/r^2].  divide by m1 and you get A=G*M/r^2

as for how they figured out its radius, that probably depends on how they found the planet (if the article says i don't remeber).  if the planet's orbital plane is in line with us, the radius can be determined by the dimming of the star as the planet passes in front.  otherwise, since they determined it is a rocky, earth-like planet they may have done the same as kara and assumed a similar density to get an estimate of size (knowing mass from observing its orbit).

thats the equation i was looking for.