8 ms·
I was essentially thinking the same thing. I wonder if an elevator could be built between all of them?
by chrisabrams 10y ago
I was essentially thinking the same thing. I wonder if an elevator could be built between all of them?
- cletusw 10y agoI imagine their relative distances change frequently, so probably not.
- Sharlin 10y agoThey are still in separate orbits so the straight line between any two varies greatly in length... not to mention intersecting the star regularly.
- longerthoughts 10y agoRegular shuttles for interplanetary travel timed with periodically favorable orbital positions?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- tajen 10y agoAt that distance, gravity must be really fun. Tides are not only for water, such tides can also change the height of mountains, the balance of high-rise buildings, infer on volleyball rules, make you fart because of changes in atmospheric pressure, or... be leveraged to generate electricity. Those guys have simili-infinite energy at human scale.
- gydfi 10y agoWould they? I mean, we can see geological features on our moon, and our tides are orders of magnitude away from being rock-tearing events. I mean, the moon is small, but... how close do these planets approach, anyway?
- rosser 10y agoClose enough that the perturbations these planets induced in one another's orbits allowed the team to estimate their masses at between 0.4 and 1.4 Earth-masses. In astronomical terms, that's very close.
- ccozan 10y agoSo it possible to see Avatar like suspended rocks ? Somewhat orbiting some lagrangian point, which is very close to surface.
- ConceptJunkie 10y agoThe Moon is about 2% of Earth's mass, not 27%.
- scardine 10y agoThe moon is not that small, it is 27% of earth's size. Any other satellite in the solar system is way smaller compared to the planet they orbit. I dare to say that earth and moon are twin planets instead of a planet and a satellite.
- Mtinie 10y ago@ConceptJunkie > The Moon is about 2% of Earth's mass, not 27%. 2% of mass, yes, but also 27% of the diameter. You are both right.
- mirimir 10y agoMy first reaction was WTF? Then 0.27^3 = 0.0197 And then, only 60% as dense (no core) so 0.0119 :)
- saalweachter 10y agoOne of my scale numbers is, everything between Jupiter and the Sun masses less than 2 Earths -- Venus, Mars, Mercury, the Moon, and all the asteroids mass less than the Earth. And only just barely! You get to around 99% of the Earth's mass with the rest of the inner solar system. All of the other rocky bodies in the solar system give you another 10% of Earth's mass out to Pluto and another 10% beyond.
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- noobermin 10y agoOne of the callers (a biologist, so not a crackpot) on TV suggested that given how close the planets were, he wondered if it were possible for there to be cross contamination between the planets given how close they are to each other. He referred to them being part of the same "ecosystem." I'm not sure how feasible that is as a non-astrobiologist, but it is an interesting idea.
- ilamont 10y agoGene Wolfe mined this idea for some of his science fiction works, except it was alien life making the jump ... Fifth Head of Cerberus & Blue's Waters/Green's Jungles.
- walkingolof 10y agoVery likely, since this happens between Mars and Earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_meteorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_meteorite
- flexie 10y agoFascinating! Would vira or bacteria beable to survive travelling from Earth to Mars in or on a rock or vice versa?
- hackuser 10y agoIIRC, that is a serious hypothesis for how life began on earth, seeded from elsewhere (maybe not Mars). But certainly someone here knows more than I do about it ...
- bradyd 10y agoThe theory is called Panspermia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia
- eanzenberg 10y agoPossible, but cross-section for collision is way way smaller in the Earth-Mars system. Cross-section goes as r^-2 so the closer the bodies, the 'way better' it is.