Too Deep a Well

[mishalak]

What if, just what if, the majority of planets with complex life are not like Earth. What if instead they tend to be much higher mass on average? Earth's gravity is high enough that it might be physically impossible to build a space elevator. It is easy to imagine a world with a bigger gravitational well, a thicker atmosphere, and complex intelligent life that has never even visited its moon because the engineering problems are nearly or completely insurmountable. Could this be a part of the solution to the Fermi paradox?

Comments

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

I believe they've run computer programs that show earthlike planets can form at any size. The necessity for life is considered to be liquid water, not planet size. And from what we know of planet formation (not definitive, by any means) it seems you get more small planets than large ones. Like there are more small stars than large ones.

Sorry.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Poo. A lovely idea destroyed by boring old facts.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

But wouldn't planets smaller than Earth tend to go like Mars and lose heat, magnetosphere, and thus water sooner than larger planets?

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

The tendency is there, but there's a big gap between Earth ( 1 Earth mass) and Mars (0.1 Earth mass). I think Earth would have been about 0.9 current mass before the thing that hit it to make the moon, did so.

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

http://www.amazon.com/Universe-Aliens-Everybody-Solutions-Extraterrestrial/dp/0387955011/sr=8-1/qid=1169859461/ref=sr_1_1/002-1213969-8972805?ie=UTF8&s=books

"Where is Everybody" is a good book on the topic.

[pompe.livejournal.com]

Bigger planets would likely be more watery, which might seriously limit life and civilization. No continents, no land, no normal geochemical cycle and odd water effects at the depths.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Poo. Another arrow into my fun little idea. A universe where the Earth is near the bottom of the scale of planets with complex life. And so all these high gravity creatures don't turn outward as much.

[pompe.livejournal.com]

I recommend John S. Lewis's "Worlds without End" for an overview of the potential problems of small and big Earth-like planets. An easy and inspiring read from the early days of extrasolar planetary finding, but not very dated.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Well, the Fermi Paradox includes the question of why we haven't detected radio transmissions from aliens, right? And even if an alien race couldn't engineer a means to leave their planet, they could still build radio transmitters which we might detect. So it may be part of the reason why we haven't been contacted, but it's certainly not the whole reason.

After all, we haven't ventured very far into space ourselves, so why assume that if there are alien races, they have a) gotten further out, or b) if they have gotten further out, that they came/are coming in our direction? We should still hear them, though.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Only if they bother to point radio waves in our direction. If they're only using radio waves for local communication and as bleed off their electrical network there is absolutely no way we could detect them. And without being able to put things in space due the deep gravity well it probably would not be as convenient as putting something to signal outside the atmosphere. And there is always the, everyone's listening and no one is intentionally transmitting, problem.

But my idea has already fallen apart due to other problems with it.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Not true, early warning radar from the DEW line can be detected from a long way off by Arecebo type dishes, much more than the oft-toted I Love Lucy TV signals.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

How far off? I've never actually seen any numbers on how far off our radio signals could be theoretically detectable given enough time to get there.

[celtane.livejournal.com]

Regarding space elevators, there's also this problem:

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn10520-space-elevators-first-floor-deadly-radiation.html

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Yet another barrier to getting into space inexpensively, joy. Perhaps we're close to that edge that makes spacegoing a worthwhile effort.

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Please don't be put off theorising! I enjoy reading others theories on stuff. My blog's got all sorts.http://mrteufel.livejournal.com/37115.html