Comments on: Rocky World COROT-7b Rains Rocks

By: Lawrence B. Crowell

Lawrence B. Crowell — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:54:51 +0000

The unpleasant climate of this planet at least is composed of matter in a more or less ordinary state. That might be compared to a neutron star, which is a gas of neutrons about 10^14 times the density and pressure of ordinary matter. The surface is composed of iron in a degenerate electron state, 10^{12} times the density of Earth, with 10^{13}Gauss magnetic field which may distend this dense crust into stalagmites. Then of course there are black holes, where I think the singularity is a quantum state in a duality with holographic states on the horizon, and where this duality involves the deformation of the very laws of physics we currently understand.

Of course the surface of an ordinary star, and even more its interior, are horrendous environments in of themselves. Our local planets are pretty inhospitable, but at least we can put probes around them, and plant a few on some surfaces —, Luna, Mars, Titan and Venus (very briefly). And of course 12 humans have been on the moon, though for short durations.

By: pink

pink — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:00:13 +0000

Too cool.

By: Jon Hanford

Jon Hanford — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:41:44 +0000

@LBC: Glad to see that you found inspiration from "The Devil in the Dark" episode of Star Trek. I saw it when it was originally aired (March 9, 1967). Even though I was only 9 years old at the time, this episode introduced me to the notion of inorganic life and only sharpened my interest in astronomy. As mentioned on the above linked Wiki page "William Shatner writes in his memoirs that "The Devil in the Dark" was his favorite original Star Trek episode. From Shatner's perspective, this episode was "exciting, thought-provoking and intelligent, it contained all of the ingredients that made up our very best Star Treks". Well put.

As you point out, a day spent on COROT-7b is a walk in the park compared to the inner accretion disk and event horizon of a black hole that you now study.

By: Lawrence B. Crowell

Lawrence B. Crowell — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:45:48 +0000

That is one of the more seminal Star Trek episodes. I remember coming home in the 8th grade and turning on ST reruns. I had just learned about the periodic table and through that episode I was aware of carbon and silcon in the same column and have analogous out shells of electrons. Watching this was a bit of a horizon expanding moment. Star Trek did do that in some cases.

Of course this planet is not that bad. I have been working on string dualities and quantum field entanglements between the event horizon and the quantized singularity. Now there is a serious environment: closed strings are distended into open strings, graviton modes tranformed into tachyon condensates and … . Makjes the interior of a neutron star look positively mild. So the surface environment of COROT is really very nice compared to what else is out there,

But one does have this though, it's a rocky planet and more of them should be friendlier than this.

By: Jon Hanford

Jon Hanford — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:18:52 +0000

@LBC: This planet sounds like a paradise for the Horta of "The Devil in the Dark" fame: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horta_%28Star_Trek%29

By: Lawrence B. Crowell

Lawrence B. Crowell — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:26:09 +0000

Nexus, You raise of course an interesting question. I would imagine that what atmosphere this planet has, vaporized rock essentially, does get precipitated out closer to the dark side of the planet. This would be mostly along an annulus where the stellar radiation is about tangent to the planetary surface. This probably is similar to tectonic spreading in the mid-atlantic rift. I might suppose solid rock builds up and increases mass and stress on the region of deposition. This then plastically deforms the rock which might then get moved into the stellar facing ocean of molten rock to be remelted and vaporized.

This planet soiunds perfectly lovely, if you are maybe a certain type of silicon life form. The universe dishes up a wide diversity of planetary forms and "landscapes." So far virtually all of them are utterly lethal to us.

By: Dave Finton

Dave Finton — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:31:13 +0000

Ack! I meant Battlestar Photoshoptica! Sorry, too many beers and games of chess tonight (I blame the chess).

By: Dave Finton

Dave Finton — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:24:03 +0000

Fulbert: I think that would make an awesome Astro-Art (or is it Photoshoptica Galactica?) entry! You should consider submitting that as an entry!

By: Nexus

Nexus — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:30:03 +0000

Bwahahahahahaha! That's brilliant, Fulbert.

By: Dave Finton

Dave Finton — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:14:23 +0000

Fulbert: I laughed. Out loud. =D

By: Fulbert

Fulbert — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:59:20 +0000

http://www.ljplus.ru/img4/f/u/fulbert/corot7b.png

An artist's conception of what the human exploration of COROT-7b might look like.

By: Torbjorn Larsson OM

Torbjorn Larsson OM — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:16:17 +0000

So future civilizations may not only terraform planets but "hellaform" them for production purposes.

Kelvin is not supposed to be a "degree"

Absolutely!

By: Feenixx

Feenixx — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:13:29 +0000

An interesting and entertaining model and conjecture. So, that's why bits of hail are called hail "stones".

btw, unlike Fahrenheit or Celsius, the Kelvin is not supposed to be a "degree"…

By: vino

vino — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:47:50 +0000

Does this planet has global atmospheric patterns? or is it very localised??

By: Flaming Pope

Flaming Pope — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:40:27 +0000

@Nexus – not necessarily, the cool half would be pulled towards the center due to shift of mass little by little, and would melt again.

I would like to say – for any and all future space corporations, this planet is a 'gold mine.'

By: Nexus

Nexus — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:40:01 +0000

If the day side is so hot and the night side cold, then wouldn't the vaporized rock be gradually transported to the dark side?

By: Dave Finton

Dave Finton — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:29:33 +0000

So if I want to ever visit the planet, I'll want to bring an extra-heavy-duty umbrella? =P