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I'm working on a computer program which generates realistic planets for worldbuilding purposes. I've run into an issue with calculating my planets heat loss. While radiogenic and tidal heat generat...
#1: Post edited
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HDE 226868
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2020-06-02T18:38:11Z (over 4 years ago)
<p>I´m working on a computer program which generates realistic planets for worldbuilding purposes. I´ve run into an issue with calculating my planets heat loss. While radiogenic and tidal heat generation and loss were easy enough to pin down, calculating primordial heat seems way harder. On Earth, we currently lose <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_internal_heat_budget" rel="noreferrer">12 - 30 TW of primordial heat</a>. Jupiter on the other hand is even today 40 K hotter than it should be due to its primordial heat.<strong>What I'm looking for is a reasonably accurate formula giving me the current heat loss in TW for a given age and mass of the planet.</strong></p><p>Assume that a planet is simply a pure rocky sphere without an atmosphere. If it isn't too complicated the modification of the formula for a water or pure hydrogen sphere would be nice. </p>
- <p>I'm working on a computer program which generates realistic planets for worldbuilding purposes. I've run into an issue with calculating my planets heat loss. While radiogenic and tidal heat generation and loss were easy enough to pin down, calculating primordial heat seems way harder. On Earth, we currently lose <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_internal_heat_budget" rel="noreferrer">12 - 30 TW of primordial heat</a>. Jupiter on the other hand is even today 40 K hotter than it should be due to its primordial heat.
- <strong>What I'm looking for is a reasonably accurate formula giving me the current heat loss in TW for a given age and mass of the planet.</strong></p>
- <p>Assume that a planet is simply a pure rocky sphere without an atmosphere. If it isn't too complicated the modification of the formula for a water or pure hydrogen sphere would be nice. </p>