Quote:
Originally Posted by Nimwe
I'm a new listener to the Astronomy Cast, and new reader here, but I thought this would be an appropriate place to mention a link concerning Gliese 581c.
The following link goes to an article in the online journal The Geochemical News, published by the Geochemical Society. The article provides a speculative but geologically plausible description of possible conditions on this newly-discovered planet (including some speculation about possible life there). It's sort of a literary analog to an 'artist's conception' of the planet.
http://gnews.wustl.edu/gn131/gliese581c.htm
Anyway, thanks for the great podcast.  |
Assumes that the planet will, despite "somewhat lower metal contents but substantially higher volatile contents than the inner worlds of our own star system", have only limited water, not enough to cover the entire surface. Also doesn't seem to understand that H2O is a greenshouse gas. A thick CO2 atmosphere would make both sides of the planet extremely hot (cf Venus, the 120 day night makes no difference to the temperature).