Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Interesting.

re: Interesting.
pwokenyaw — (archived)

Just going from memory, I read that Mars would receive 1/10th the amount of Earth material as Earth receives Mars material, which still is a lot. I think the ratio is primarily due to the ejecta having to climb up the Sun's gravity well, but getting out of Earth's deeper gravity well might also be relevant.

I also read one paper a while back that argued the energy need to accelerate ejecta to Earth's escape velocity would sterilize it, but I've never seen that repeated, so I don't know how valid it is.

What would be interesting to learn is the amount of material that gets exchanged between planets relatively quickly, as opposed to spending thousands/millions of years absorbing radiation in solar orbit.

It would also be interesting to get calculations on how much Earth material makes it to the surface of Europa, where it could get subducted into the oceans.

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