Posted on 03/06/2015 5:22:32 PM PST by BenLurkin
Squak8888, You make an excellent point and you snapped me back decades to Physics 101. Now lets see.. The article states in one place that the planet is twice the size of earth while another place says it is 3 times as massive and I’ll assume those figures are true for now.
g = G M / r^2
g = surface gravity m/s^2
G = gravitational constant for MKS system of units
M = mass in kg
r = radius in meters
Since in this case, we are interested only in relative gravity to earth, we can call earth gravity g(earth) and dispense with G.
Rearranging
g(GJ581d) = g(earth) *3 / 2^2 = 0.75 g(earth)
Well that’s a much better result. The diameter being double outweighs the tripled mass because of the square relationship. So maybe a visit would not be so bad!
believe, mysterious, could, likely, claims, model, interpret, believed, public imagination, social-networking site, Twitter
You may commence your stoning of this heretic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.