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To: Dead Corpse

Actually, nobody here has yet mentioned the biggest reason why Venus is overheated, and why terraforming would never work. Venus is practically tide locked to the Sun. A year on Venus is 224 Earth-days long. A DAY on Venus is 243 Earth-days long. This means one day lasts longer than one year. Without actually doing the math, this also means that if you watched the sun rise on one Venusian horizon, it would take almost 13 Earth-years for it to trek across the sky and set on the other horizon. Since its poles have no appreciable tilt and the planet has no seasons, the surface essentially superheated.

Venus is actually located within the band of our solar system that could, theoretically, support human life. If we could thin out the atmosphere and speed up its spin rate, Venus could eventually have large habitable zones with shirtsleeve weather at the poles (the equator would be a vast desert). Since the mechanics of changing the rotational rate of a planet are so far beyond us that even thinking about it is laughable, we realistically have to conclude that it will never be populated.

Oh, and one other scientific oddity. Venus isn't perfectly tide locked with the Sun, but it IS tide locked with the EARTH. Our gravity doesn't effect the planet enough to tide lock it, so most scientists write it off as coincidence. We can't see it through the clouds, but whenever we look at Venus, the same side of the planet is facing us. (Personally, I think there's a reason for that...both the odd rotation of Venus and the formation of our own tide locked moon seem to have resulted from huge impacts. My suspicion is that the impacts occurred simultaneously, or that Venus may have been involved with the impact itself).


50 posted on 10/18/2005 11:30:54 AM PDT by Arthalion
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To: Arthalion
Angular strike with a long period comet. If it hits at the correct angle, it should impart more rotationaly velocity, splash off some of the atmo, add a bunch of ice, ect... Of course, hitting it at the wrong angle would cause it to either glance off or shatter the planet... but at least no one lives there to gripe about it.

As for modifying the loop of a long period comet... GCNR on a probe. when the comet comes back down the gravity well, have the rocket start converting ice to propellent and applying thrust. All it needs to do is nudge it into place. From a few million miles out, it shouldn't take a lot.

52 posted on 10/18/2005 11:37:49 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (Anyone who needs to be persuaded to be free, doesn't deserve to be. -El Neil)
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To: Arthalion
Interesting comments! Have you read "The 12th.Planet" by Zecharia Sitchin? much to ponder there.
66 posted on 10/18/2005 1:44:53 PM PDT by munin
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To: Arthalion
(Personally, I think there's a reason for that...both the odd rotation of Venus and the formation of our own tide locked moon seem to have resulted from huge impacts. My suspicion is that the impacts occurred simultaneously, or that Venus may have been involved with the impact itself).

Getting pretty close to Immanuel Velikovsky there.

92 posted on 10/22/2005 12:29:34 AM PDT by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
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