Water-logged world

[Hunter Parasite]

Can a world equal to 2 earth masses, sustain an ocean that almost, or even completely covers the entire planet? And would said planet be able to sustain a thick atmosphere consistion of high amounts of CO2, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, without sever incident?

[Nick]

Allz I know is you'd need a hell of a lot of CO2, cause most of it would dissolve in the ocean.

[MKruer]

The simple answer is yes. How it would form is an entirely different question. In order to have a sizable amount of oxygen there has to be some reason, plants or something that would take the CO2 and convert it. You don?€™t typically find oxygen in large quantities compared to the lighter elements. I am sure someone smarter then I, has a link to what one would typically expect to find on a planet that was newly formed and how the planet might develop.

I have a similar planet for my Rylix system, but its more like a hot house with high levels of CO2 but not necessarily oxygen. Think liquid Venus. http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2448

[eburacum45]

What you seem to be describing is a water world or ocean planet. Several detailed simulations of such planets have been carried out'; it is quite realistic to expect that a planet with twice Earth's mass could retain an ocean covering the planet, possibly tens of kilometers deep.

The atmosphere can't contain hydrogen and oxygen together, however- they will react and form water again. Water vapour in the atmosphere of a waterworld can be split by UV in the sunlight to form oxygen and hydrogen; on a smaller world the hydrogen will escape, leaving an oxygen rich atmosphere, while on a larger world much of the hydrogen will remain long enough to become oxidised back into water. So a smaller planet can have an oxygen rich atmosphere, and a much larger planet would retain an excess of primordial hydrogen; but there could not be a mixture between the two.

The rocky core of the planet will probably outgas CO2, as you have suggested; probably nitrogen will also be present in quantity, as it is present in both Venus and the Earth's atmospheres. If there is carbon based (CHON life) the CO2 will be a useful resource for any photosynthetic organisms.

Here are some images of waterworlds in Orion's Arm;


Sarustre by John Dollan


Pacifica by John Dollan


Panthalassa by me

For more detail on Panthalassa see here
http://www.orionsarm.com/worlds/Panthalassa.html

thanks to Grant Hutchinson for the help he gave in setting the parameters of this world,;
see also the references to a number of simulations of waterworlds at the borttom of that page

[Hunter Parasite]

thanks, now, i have another question. Lets say we have a system of 4 or more planets, if one of the planets was destroyed in some manner, as in nothing left whatsoever, would that disturb the orbit of the other planets?

[eburacum45]

I understand that it would disturb the other planets to a certain extent, yes. All the planets influence each other, although the smaller worlds like the Earth only have a very small effect on the other worlds; on the other hand Jupiter's influence is second only to the Sun, so making that world dissapear would make quite a bit of difference to our system.

Of course the destruction of a planet would be a phenomenally energetic event- if the planet concerned was destroyed in an explosion that would create much more havoc in a solar system than the gravitational effects.

If I recall correctly the explosion would be similar in magnitude to a nova explosion (not a supernova, just a nova).

If you really are interested in the effects of removing a planet from a solar system try this simulator- it is a little tricky to learn the controls, at first, but if you like Celestia you will probably like this.
http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/a ... /what.html

[Hunter Parasite]

The manner of the destruction is different than you think. In my book, a certain planet we all know and love, will not be blown up, but swallowed by a powerseeker ship known as a Planetary Destroyer(For obvious reasons). Also, our favorite little star will be used as a weapon of mass destruction against us by the a Powerseeker ship known as the Doom Wraith. Said ship has dimensions comparable to that of jupiter, and can Consume planets larger than itself.

[Dollan]

So basically, you're saying that the planet has been "taken away", for all intents and purposes. If it's a terrestrial world, then I doubt that there will be much effect on other worlds at all, especially if the world is simply being "swallowed".

[eburacum45]

Tw things here; if the Planetary Destroyer has a similar mass to Jupiter then it will perturb all the planets in the system to a certain extent. This perturbation will be much greater than the effect of simply removing the planet as if by magic.

Secondly the act of swallowing the planet and making off with it would involve the release of a lot of energy; perhaps all this energy would be contained inside the body of the Planetary Destroyer, heating it up internally. I think that without very good insulation, your planetary destroyer would glow white hot for a while like a miniature star.

[Hunter Parasite]

I thought of that, so to counter that issue,(Not that the powerseekers would care, all they do is kill.) I have created the Gravity Breaker, it is of alterist origin, who are known for their technology that can defy the laws of physics. Like making a fire burn underwater, or increasing or decreasing the mass of something without changing the physical appearence. The gravity breaker comes in two versions, handheld or ship mounted. It will effectivley stop the influence of gravity on any object with the gravity breaker. So, with added cloaking, a Planetary destroyer can zip past a planet without anyone noticing.

The ship itself is hollow, the center is a clockwork of spinning blades larger than the moon and an antimatter particle beam. You would think the explosions of the antimatter would tear the ship apart, but a durable layer of polymetal that is 100 miles thick keep the expolsions from the rest of the ship. The front of the ship opens up when it begins to swallow the planet, and closes when done. Then, it will just fly away like nothing happend.