Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
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
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If you believe the theory that a significant amount of the formation of life on earth had to do with our
tides, is a super-earth less likely to develop life because you need a larger moon to counter the greater gravity of the earth and actually create tides? Or does it increase the likelihood, because the larger planet means a greater probability of capturing a significant moon?