Hey folx,
Guess I'm a bit behind in the times, but I've been a bit busy. A
while back there was a thread on the TML about planetary
atmospheres. Basically the argument went along the line that since
Earth has a standard atmosphere, a planet with a more dense
atmosphere in Traveller must have a more dense core than Earth.
I'm afraid that is not the case.
You see any analysis of Earth's atmosphere has to take the actions
of Earth's Moon into account. The moon is substantially larger
than any standard moon. The Earth - Moon system is much more like
a double planetary system than a single planet with a regular moon.
The moon is so large and so close that it is slowly skimming off
the Earth's atmosphere, thinning it out. Tidal action of the moon
actually gives escape velocity to some of Earth's upper atmosphere.
By contrast, Venus is slightly less dense than Earth (Surface
gravity 0.9G), yet it has an atmosphere of between 10 and 25
atmoshperes. (CRC handbook Chem/Physics) Why? Venus has no moon,
not even tiny asteroid moons like Mars.
I also seem to remember reading an article a couple years back that
suggested Earth may have been hit by a small planetoid. Approx
Mars size. When the planetary core hit, it spread a large amount
of heavier metals over the surface of the planet. That was
supposed to explain why there are measureable amounts of metals
like gold, silver, platinum, lead, copper, iron etc. etc. in the
crust instead of them being tied up in the core of the planet.
Catie? You heard anything like that? Or is there a more
conventional explanation for the distribution of metals in the
Earth's crust?
Scott 2G Kellogg