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Titan has a darn thick atmosphere, and it's a moon of Saturn. I don't see any reason the planet from the article couldn't have an atmosphere.
by PopeDotNinja 7y ago
Titan has a darn thick atmosphere, and it's a moon of Saturn. I don't see any reason the planet from the article couldn't have an atmosphere.
- saiya-jin 7y agoIsn't some of the atmosphere being replenished from its inner geology? Also IIRC Mars lost its atmosphere due to solar winds and lack of good protective magnetic field, unlike earth with its radioactivity-fed one. I would expect Titan has it neither, but is much farther from Sun so solar winds must be a tiny fraction of intensity out there.
- ourlordcaffeine 7y ago>IIRC Mars lost its atmosphere due to solar winds and lack of good protective magnetic field Someone in the know correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is no longer the main theory, as solar wind ablation is too slow to make such a huge impact. I believe the popular explanation now is that geological reactions, i.e. gas reacting with rocks and being sequestered, played a larger part.
- zipwitch 7y agoSolar wind as the culprit was still being tossed around in 2017. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-maven-reveals-most-of-mars-atmosphere-was-lost-to-space https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-maven-reveals-most-... "The new result reveals that solar wind and radiation were responsible for most of the atmospheric loss on Mars, and the depletion was enough to transform the Martian climate."
- ourlordcaffeine 7y agoAh, maybe I read that geological processes were ruled out rather than being the main driver
- ryanmercer 7y agoTitan keeps its atmosphere, in part, because of Saturn's magnetosphere. It is inside it something like 95% of the time.
- eloff 7y agoRadioactivity fed? Indirectly by producing heat and motion in the core?