A habitable planet made of gas?

So, after multiple users informed me that my previous question was a little to broad, I decided to narrow my focus a little bit.

Using only hard science, could there be a planet composed, with the exception of a small, rocky core, entirely out of gas, that could support human life? I don't just mean one in which spacecraft could venture. No, I mean a fully breathable, habitable, earth-like world; One which you could live in without any sort of advanced equipment (assuming you had food to eat, water to drink, and solid ground to stand on). This doesn't mean the entire planet has to be livable; Just a small, verticle sliver or localised area would be fine.

The main things to take into consideration are...

• Radiation: The solar wind streaming through space would normally turn the planet into an inhospitable wasteland. This radiation would, somehow, have to be low enough that a stable population could exist, even if it suffered from higher rates of birth defects and a shorter average lifespan.

• Gravity: The reason I said "Planet made of gas" instead of "Gas giant" is because any human on the latter would crumple under their own weight. To avoid this, the new planet would have to be comparitively small, making the gravity roughly that of Earth's, so that the denizens wouldn't be to stout/elongated, and of more normal preportions.

• Pressure: The pressure has to be within reasonable means for a human to survive, although, in the case of scuba divers, the addition of certain gases would increase this.

• Air: Gases, especially reactive ones like oxygen, don't like to stay in neat, precise bands but instead mingle. It would have to be a high enough percentage for a working, active person to safely breath for years on end, and of course free of any dangerous or toxic substances like Carbon Dioxide.

• Cold: The level of heat, due the specific story I'm working with, is more variable, with anything that a society living today endures acceptable.

Please comment if you need any clarification.

posted almost 9 years ago

Cthulu472‭

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