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Before we get into seasons, life, etc., we have to address the question of whether or not such a configuration could exist. At first glance, I see no reason why two planets couldn't orbit a star in...
I'll first address Cha 110913-773444 specifically. Checking the Wikipedia page yields some interesting information: Mass: 5-15 Jupiter masses. This means that it is likely a planet - extremely l...
It could be that our reproductive system doesn't work too well in zero gravity. That would impose a strong selection pressure to adapt the reproductive system to zero gravity, which then in turn mi...
As far as dietary requirements go, there's absolutely no problem with giant spiders. They'd have essentially the same dietary needs as any other large predator, and so any environment able to supp...
Sir? Mr? Ma'am? Miss? In a universe as large as ours (infinitely large, possibly) you're going to have a lot of species with more than two genders. So we can scrap the "Miss". I'm going to assume ...
TL,DR: TL,DR: Would humans beings from Earth be seriously injured or killed from the long period variation of the main color a bunch of stars projects on a planet? My TL;DR: Yes. Could such a...
Well, it might. But only a little, for now. As others have pointed out, we only get a small portion of our energy from solar power. However, the Sun is indirectly related to other methods of produ...
"We don't know who struck first, us or them, but we know that it was us that scorched the sky." -- Morpheus, The Matrix Electric power generation works by converting other forms of energy int...
I realize that creating worlds with multiple moons and/or suns is risky I think I implied this is one of my answers. I suppose that this statement really comes down to opinion, but there's som...
Well, it's really, really, really, really unlikely, but I suppose there's a mechanism for it (albeit unlikely). I think you get the picture. Take your planet. Now take a very dense neutron star. P...
This cannot happen. Here's why: Conservation of electric charge would be violated: The Earth is made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Electrons are charge; protons and neutrons contain partic...
I love this one. I really do. Quick Answer: I'd put the date at roughly 2.3 billion years ago, give or take. This is the date of the Great Oxygenation Event. It's when organisms (bacteria) began ...
TimB's answer is basically what I would write, except for a very small loophole that I'll include here. Any celestial body does not actually orbit another body, but a point in space called the sys...
Yes, but you'd have to get lucky. If you want to use celestial bodies, you're best bet would be to study the effects of something that closely interacts with the Sun. Really, this rules out much o...
Let's first do some math, the first part taken from this pdf regarding (solar) radiation pressure (the formulas should be applicable from any source of electromagnetic radiation). The intensity $I...
Note: My original answer was incorrect; tidal locking would not produce such a scenario. For an excellent explanation of why this is the case, see smithkm's answer. I want to leave in some notes re...
There is - believe it or not - a loophole that could show give solid evidence that Ragnarok happened. It involves a black hole (or a very massive body). One of the coolest effects of general relat...
This is my favorite question in a while, so I hope it's okay if I bend a slight rule in order to answer it. The question explicitly says "likely", so chances are my answer is completely invalid. I ...
Ahh, here we go. No. But yes. I'll leave the stuff about the Roche limit for Vincent; after all, it was his idea. Assuming he writes up an answer, you'll learn why these planets cannot be tidally...
It would be brilliant. 30% oxygen atmosphere would mean that our human bodies have more available oxygen and would take more in in a single breath; this means that we would be able to respire faste...
Denver has about 17% less oxygen than at sea level. Note that this isn't reduced concentration; there's just less air. This answer doesn't address the increased proportion of other elements in th...
Probably not. A direct quote from here would be nice, but I'm not sure if there's any relevant copyright on the text, so I'll just summarize. Here are the steps to forming a contact binary star sy...
This method would work, almost without doubt, on humans. There would always be some doubt in their minds as to whether the universe was real, so they would probably not kill everything. Probably. ...
A city planet Take Coruscant, from Star Wars. It's a planet covered entirely by one large, sprawling, complex city. I'm not sure if there's a canonical reference to how high the tallest buildings ...
You wrote I'm thinking for instance that the next post-human pulse for instance would have a lot less coal and oil. That's it. You hit the nail on the head. Each re-generation is inheriting ...
