if a planet were discovered between mars and earth...?

Question

what would it's characteristics possibly be? (rotation rate, revolution rate, number of moons, number of rings, etc.)

or what would the characteristics of a planet be if it were discovered between jupiter and saturn?

i KNOW it cant happen
use ur imagination

Answer 1

Between Earth and Mars, probably small and rocky. Has for rotation rate, I can't say for sure, that is a characteristic that would have to be discovered. Revolution rate, Somewhere between 365 days and 779 days. Number of moons for a small rocky planet is usually small taken from the fact that mercury has none, Earth has only one, Venus has none and Mars has only Two. No rings. If discovered that close, it would be a rocky planet and those usually don't have rings. If it were between Jupiter and Saturn, it would most likely rotate very slowly, revolve between 4,332 days and 10,756 days. It would also have alot of moons has it would be a gas giant and those have alot of moons. Probably between 10 and 35. It would also most likely have alot of rings. Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus have alot of rings and so, I base it on that.

Answer 2

True that it couldn't happen, since such a planet could be seen without a telescope, but if it did happen then...

Between Earth and Mars it would be in the habitable zone, where the temperature would be quite Earth like. And it would probably be a small rocky planet like the other inner planets. Probably no rings and not many moons, like the other inner planets. A good place to look for life or establish a colony.

Between Jupiter and Saturn it would be really cold because that is so far from the Sun. And it would probably be like the other outer planets, a big, gas giant planet with no real solid surface, maybe with rings and lots of moons.

Answer 3

Couldn't happen... Kepler's 3rd Law states: "The squares of the orbital periods of planets are directly proportional to the cubes of the major axis (the "length" of the ellipse) of the orbits. This means not only that larger orbits have longer periods, but also that the speed of a planet in a larger orbit is lower than in a smaller orbit."

There's no room between Earth and Mars' orbit .... or Jupiter and Saturn's orbit...

If you're postulating a thought experiment, then... you would have no way to guess the rotation rate... the orbital period would be somewhere between Earth's and Mars' ...or between Jupiter's and Saturn's... that would be obvious... but there's no way to determine how many moons or rings there might be...

JT

Answer 4

It was recently discovered that there used to be a planet between Earth and Mars.

This planet's name was Tarsonis. It was a humid planet teeming with life, including humanoids. Many millions of years ago the Zerg swarm appeared from warp space, invaded the planet, laid waste to all life there, and infested the crust of this planet.

Protoss warships detected the Zerg presence and descended from high orbit and burned Tarsonis to a crisp to prevent the spread of the swarm. Our moon was also burnt from some of this radiation, hence why it is now desolate.

Earth would have been next.

Answer 5

Kepler's law (3rd one) states that P^2 = a^3
The square of the orbital period (P) is proportional to the cube of the orbital radius (a = distance from Sun).
If you use proper units, then the numbers are equal.

Use Astronomical Units for the radius (a) and Earth years for the period (P).

Earth is (by definition) at 1 astronomical unit from the Sun and has a period of 1 year (1 squared = 1 = 1 cubed)

Mars is 1.524 astronomical units from the Sun. According to Kepler's relation, its period should be 1.9 earth years (692.6 days).

1.9^2 = 1.524^3.

In reality, it is 687 days. Kepler's law is good but not exact (it was made better by Isaac Newton).

So, a planet placed between Earth and Mars would have an orbital radius of somewhere between 1 and 1.524 astronomical units.

Let us say that you choose 1.3 A.U. Then how long would its "year" last?

P^2 = a^3
P^2 = 1.3^3 = 2.197
P = SQRT(2.197) = 1.482 Earth years = 541 days.

Earth receives 1370 Watts per square metre of energy from the Sun. Energy (like brightness) drops as the square of the distance.

Your new planet would receive 1370 / 1.3^2 = 810 W/m^2 a little less than 60% of the flux of energy that Earth gets.

The Sun would appear only 60% as bright as it does from Earth.

From Earth, the apparent diameter of the Sun's disk is a touch more than 30 arc-minutes (half a degree = 0.5 deg.). On your new planet, it would have an apparent diameter of 30/1.3 = 23 arc-minutes (almost 0.4 deg.).

The rest of the characteristics would depend on how it was formed (or created, if you make it artificial). It would likely be small because Earth and Mars have captured most of the stuff that existed in this interval of the solar system. However, it would likely be rocky, as this region of the solar system was (and still is) warm enough for light gasses to escape very easily from planets while they are forming.

Being small and still (relatively) close to the Sun, this planet would not have a very thick atmosphere (if it even has one).

Therefore, if it had any moons, they would likely be very small and temporary (the gravitational interference from Earth and Mars would disrupt their orbits).

Of course, if you are creating an artificial planet, you can put as many as you want, but keep them small, dense and close to the planet it you want them to last a long time.

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Tarsonis and the Zergs were in another stellar system (in the Koprulu sector). They are from StarCarft, a game.

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Jupiter is 5.2 A.U. from the Sun and its sidereal orbital period is 11.86 Earth years.
(5.2 cubes = 140.60; 11.86 squared = 140.66; Kepler's law is very close for Jupiter)

Saturn is 9.55 A.U. from the Sun and its sidereal orbital period is 29.5 Earth years.
(9.55^3=871; 29.5^2=870.25)

Because there is that much more space between them, if a planet did form there, it would be bigger than any puny thing that could have formed between Earth and Mars.

Because the solar flux is much less there (for example, 50 W/m^2 at Jupiter), things are a lot colder. Gas molecules cannot move as fast and would not escape the planet as easily (that is why the existing planets are mostly gas, and are called "gas giants").

So, your new planet might be larger (then the one between Earth and Mars) and have an atmosphere.

The disrupting effect of the Sun is much less so that the planet could retain a few satellites (and there are lots of asteroids to capture around there). However, the gravitational disruption of Jupiter and Saturn are enough to make it hard to predict how long and how many satellites your new planet could have.

In fact, the gravitational disruption of Jupiter is enough to explain why our existing solar system does not have any major planet between Jupiter and Saturn and why we have only pieces of rock (asteroids) between Jupiter and Mars.

Place your new planet at (let us say) 8 AU.

8^3 = 512
SQRT(512)= 22.63
Its period would be 22.63 Earth-years.

The Sun's diameter would appear a tiny 4 arc-minutes at best. The Solar flux would be 1370 / 8^2 = 21.4 Watts per square metre. It would be cold out there.

Despite its smaller size, the Sun would still appear thousands of times brighter than the Full Moon appears from Earth.

Answer 6

A little warmer than Mars, a little colder than Earth. One year a bit longer than an Earth year and shorter than a Martian year. Maybe it's tipped on its axis relative to the elciptic, maybe it isn't (which means mayube it has seasons, maybe not). Maybe it has no moons (like Venus) or maybe it has a bunch of them (like Jupitor). Maybe it has rings, maybe it doesn't. Who knows what it's made of.

Get the general drift?

Doug

Answer 7

I'm not exactly sure there is a definite answer.. I do not know much about the Solar System.. but I'm pretty sure it isn't possible to tell...

Answer 8

I would say that the person who made the discovery is probably under the influence

Answer 9

I think I lost my peanut butter and jelly sandwich somewhere in that area? If you happen to spot it let me know! I'm kinda hungry.......

Answer 10

we would call the planet Bruno