I for one welcome our new Gleisian overlords

[littlebluedog]

The scientific community is all excited over the discovery that planet Gleise 581 c may be habitable.

But maybe I've read too much bad sci-fi, because "five times the size of earth and next to a red dwarf" to me means it's more likely that they're headed this way to escape, and will be enormously strong in comparison to us.

Heads up.

Comments

Astronomer Needed?

[jef182]

You Rang?

5 times the mass of the Earth does not mean 5 times the -size-. The article actually said "50% larger". 5 times the mass -would- equal 5 times the total gravity- but the surface of the planet wouldn't necessarily be at 5 Earth G's either because greater diameter = lesser surface gravity. Thusly

To use the nomenclature of the day-

Earf = 1 G
Jupiter- 2.6 G (even though it is thosands of times more massive- the surface area is also thousands of times larger
Saturn - 1.1 G (same deal)
Neptune = 1.14 G (many hundreds of times more massive, but just a little behind the curve surface area-wise compared to the other giants.)

There's a saying among planetary astronomers- There are those that stufy Jupiter, and there is everyone else. If I weren't being lazy i could calculate the predicted gravity assuming the planet was more or less a rocky crust with a crystaline liquid iron core like ours.

Red Dwarf's are OK- but Dwarf Carbon Stars make me go ooooh when I see them through the telescope.

Re: Astronomer Needed?

[littlebluedog]

OK, so maybe I'm not so much worried about them, but we'll still have to deal with their robots.

Re: Astronomer Needed?

[jef182]

pssst- we can escape in my flying car ! ;)