Is Saturn a failed gas giant?

by looperhacks • 3 years ago

59 58 3 years ago

rob74• 3 years ago

TIL that Uranus and Neptune fall into a different category than Jupiter and Saturn (ice giants vs. gas giants - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_planet).

x86x872• 3 years ago

I learned about the term Jovian from "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" The idea of somehow capturing ice giants and bringin them into the zone where they would melt to create water in the planets closer to the star is a stelar system is fascinating.

Also: the solar system would look completely different if Jupiter was not a thing.

deprecative• 3 years ago

The fun thing is that Jupiter was migrating into the inner solar system and Saturn managed to convince it that it would be a bad time so they migrated back out. It's fascinating. I didn't realize the term ice giant was so unknown. It's a sample of one thread but I'd bet that if I asked a lot of my friends and family they wouldn't know it either.

toss1• 3 years ago

Sounds like a great thing — until the orbits of the rest of the planets destabilize and Earth gets ejected from the solar system.

'Tho if we have the technology and energy to move gas giants into different orbits, we probably have the capacity to actively keep Earth in a proper orbit (and imparting that much energy into the crust might make some interesting phenomena)

jvm___2• 3 years ago

The Sun is 99.9% of the mass in our solar system. Jupiter is most of the remaining 0.1% and then the rest of the planets are included in the 0.01%.

Also, Jupiter is the only planet that orbits around a point outside of the surface of the Sun. All the other planets point of orbit are below the surface of the Sun.

Jupiter is massive.

c_crank5• 3 years ago

One thing I'm pretty confident humanity will never do is move planets around like marbles. The masses involved make the suggestion laughable.

wruza• 3 years ago

For that energy budget it’s probably easier to bring your own phobos-sized body and pepper it with minerals mined nearby.

scns• 3 years ago

Earth would look different too. Through its' high mass, Jupiter gets the most visits by asteroids. He protects us. The romans named their highest god Jupiter.

tivert• 3 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_giant:

However, in the 1990s, it became known that Uranus and Neptune are really a distinct class of giant planets, being composed mainly of heavier volatile substances (which are referred to as "ices"). For this reason, Uranus and Neptune are now often classified in the separate category of ice giants.[2]

I guess there's a distinction I wasn't aware of.

Edit: I had this comment written, but I guess I waited too long to submit.

jylam• 3 years ago

heavier volatile substances (which are referred to as "ices")

When you know that astronomers call about anything that is not hydrogen or helium "metals" and you learn that even gazes are "ices" for some reason¸ makes you think now would be a good time to level the playground and start again :)

BirAdam• 3 years ago

I agree, but from what I understand it's partially about things typically behave. At super cool temperatures, ice acts like stone, and a bunch of other stuff will appear to be as strong as metals. There's also a ton of tradition dating back to the renaissance time period.

cvccvroomvroom3• 3 years ago

It's all about finding ice XI.

denton-scratch• 3 years ago

The abstract (all I read) doesn't explain why Saturn is a failed gas giant. I thought it was considered simply a gas giant?

user67232• 3 years ago

Saturn still emits more heat than it receives from the present sun.

overnight5349• 3 years ago

As opposed to its previous star?

user67232• 3 years ago

Old Hebrew word for sun is Shamash. Tablets of Shamash give a hint.

rbanffy• 3 years ago

Seems pretty giant to me.

p1mrx2• 3 years ago

Yeah, that's pretty rich coming from researchers who are 25 orders of magnitude smaller.

p1mrx2• 3 years ago

Don't worry about those haters with papers. You haven't failed. Just keep on being Saturn.

drbojingle• 3 years ago

Are we cancelling Saturn now?

Is Saturn a failed gas giant?

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