New Mars Forums

Hi, yes, planets -  made from accretion discs and then planets that continue to form from collisions with other similar bodies in early solar system formation, molten metal cores in the gas giants Great! thanks.
But seriously - How big can a rocky planet be? 

I like this - "At some point gravity will become so high that the planet will be a featureless sphere. "
So a bigger planet may have less mountain ranges/features etc. But then thinking about it that would depend on the internal workings of that particular planet - plate tectonics/volcanics etc - Again I suppose this depends on the size of the planetoid.
So can I assume that thre is no size limit because at high gravity the planet will either break up or become 'something else' like a ball of metal.

My original question was inspired by thinking about how big a rocky plant similar to our own could be.

Also could an increased 'spin' on a heavy planet give enough centrifugal force to significantly mask the planets 'true' gravity?

When I say true' gravity? I mean hypothetically - if our own Earth stopped spinning everything would become slightly heavier wouldn't it? To what degree I don't know, I wouldn't think its much - But the effect would exist nether the less....right?

This is all fantastic at last people who are in the stuff i'm in too!

- Yes I 've heard about this scenario, it would be interesting if upon further study of the asteroid belt it was possible for science to tell if the rocks there used to previously form a planet or not?

- The thing that worries me is that none of the astronauts are going to be in any shape to even unfasten their seatbelts once they land on the planet, let alone feed themselves or help each other if their is a problem. I agree the answer is getting their quicker minimising the effect of zero G on the Astronaughts - although the quicker you go I would imagine the more vulnerable the craft becomes to impacts from cosmic dust and small rocks etc.

-sure yeah centrifugal force  - the effect is obvious at any fair ground park, can it be sustained at a constant 1 g rate for a long time? - The space vessel indeed would have to be huge, I like the idea of whole cities tucked inside vast toilet roll tubes floating around or even traveling out in space, then perhaps the crafts 'spin' can be slowed at a steady rate over the journey to acclimatise the astronauts to their new planet.

Cheers

Hello,
I have had some questions that have been on my mind for ages and this seems like the best place to ask or at least talk about certain issues I have with traveling to Mars and eventually Terraforming the place.

1) There is no means of getting a human there with out a craft that can produce a gravitational effect, which has got to be years away before anything like 'tether' or rotating technology can be applied to a space ship.

2) Mars can never hold down an atmosphere, so even if a new one where some how created it would only seep away like the old one did!

3) There is not enough magnetic field to protect the planet anyway.  Since its core was somehow compromised all those millions of years ago (I like the idea that the core partially blew out and produced the giant volcano oplympus mons in the process)

Thanks for listening

Tim