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Old 07-23-2015, 11:16 AM   #2362
troutman
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SETI did already look at the planet.

What would the gravity be like on Super Earths?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...uch-gravity-us

The formula for calculating a planet’s surface gravity: mass divided by the radius squared. That is, SG=M/R^2. If you express mass and radius in Earth units, you get surface gravity as multiples of Earth's.

Really!? Let’s try it with HD 40307g, using data from the Habitable Exoplanet Catalog. Mass, 8.2 Earths. Radius, 2.4 times Earth's. That gets you a surface gravity of 1.42 times Earth.

It seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? How can a planet be so much more massive than Earth yet have only 1.42 times the gravity at the surface? The answer lies in the radius. The further you are from the planet’s center, the less its gravity pulls at you. Another way of putting it is that the greater the planet’s radius is for its mass, the less dense it is.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astro..._ish_star.html


Last edited by troutman; 07-23-2015 at 11:25 AM.
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