Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Who needs an atmosphere?

Good point but
M.A.E. — (archived)

I'm pretty sure the article I was discussing didn't include oceanic effects when discussing the tidal lock issue. I read the link Tom posted by Croswell after my post above and it sounds like a "dense" atmosphere isn't that dense at all in comparison to Earth just compared to say Mars. I'm pretty sure this planet would have an atmosphere at least 15% as dense as Earth's based on the simple assumption that it formed in or near the habitable zone of it's star and should have a starting distribution of elements reasonably close to Earth's. With more mass it should be able to hold onto more volatiles.

In short throw out my initial concern on tidal locking just based on a reasonably dense atmosphere. Using similar formation logic it's a good bet this planet is covered with as much or a larger fraction of water than Earth as a similar mass fraction of water would be spread over an area smaller in proportion to the mass of water. Not sure I agree ocean's are more important though. By mass they obviously effect the average temperature of the potential biosphere more and probably play a stronger role in the possibility of aquatic life, but I'd think the atmosphere matters more to surface life even on top of the ocean.

Regards,
Mark

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