Hi Catie,
That was a *very* informative message on planetary development!
A few questions...
Can you run through a similiar scenario for a Gas Giant? How does a Gas Giant
elvolve without a heavy core?
Does Venus have higher or lower proportions of iron/nickel, silicon oxides, &
sulfur oxides? My understanding is that Venus does have plenty of sulfur
oxides, but I'm not sure about silicon oxides. With all this and CO, it seems
that Venus has all the basic building blocks of life, except maybe H???
The difference in Venus I assume, is that the temperature is so hot that O2 is
not stable, it quickly combines with C, Su, or Si. Since there are no plants
to create O2 it must have anaerobic life if any, like a few of Earths
microorganisms. If you could cool venus off, and seed some plants, you could
break up to CO, and create O2 and C-?. does Fe, Ni, Si, or Su combine readily
with C? You really need that H for life, or are there alternatives? H is such
an adaptable little bugger, you can stick it in anywhere. If you have the C, H
& O (sounds like a railroad!), you've got it made.
What then happens to the remaining Fe, Ni, Si & Su? Well, on Earth most of the
Fe/Ni is in the core, and what little is left doesn't bother most people. We
have plenty of SiO silica lying around, and that's ok. I don't know about the
Su, though, Sulfa is a pretty antiseptic compound, right? Su+C+H+O are all
those smelly compounds, right?
Iron is the heaviest common element because Solar Fusion stops at Iron, right?
Where are the other elements O, Si, Su, Ni, C in the Solar Fusion Sequence?
I know that H is at the beginning :-) I know that super heavy elements come
from novas and super novas, but where are the other micellaneous elements
created?
As the different weights of elements are seperated in a planets crust, with
Fe/Ni on the bottom or core, then the Si, then the Su, and Gases, aren't the
elements also seperated to some extent solar-ly? Ie heaviest elements toward
the sun, lighter elements out toward the gas giants? Then how does the star
get all it's H fuel? Is this why Venus doesn't have enough H? Or is it
chance?
What would Earth's temperature be in Venus's orbit?
What's wrong with Mars? Is it because it's core is dead, or because it's too
light, or is it missing some element?
You mentioned that planetary cores get their heat from radioactive elements; I
had always thought that it was from gravity.
How does the satellites of Gas Giants hang onto their heavy elements, and keep
them from being sucked up by the gas giants?
How are planets/satellites formed, anyway? I know some chunks get sucked into
orbit, but can a satellite acreete in orbit. I guess that matter condenses
into given orbits just like planets, but that would give you a ring, more or
less, rather then a discrete body. Or do certain points attract the matter
like lagrange points? Or do chunks scoop up the rest of the matter in the
orbit as it goes around? But then aren't all the stuff in an orbit tavelling
at the same speed by definition?
Is the sun mostly H & He, or does it have a lot of the heavier elements too?
Perhaps a forming sun collects all elements, but then centrifuges off the
heavier ones, which then fall into different orbits and form planets?
Sorry about all the dumb disorganized questions, but I had a lot of them, and
not a lot of time to spit them out...
Jim Baranski