Posts by HDE 226868
Here on Earth, the majority of weather-related events happen in a layer of the atmosphere known as the troposphere. It lies from Earth's surface to approximately $20 \text { km}$ - at its highest. ...
Assuming you have a map, I would first plot out all the different settlements. Towns, cities, villages, hamlets, outhouses - everything. Now connect them in straight lines. Completely straight. It ...
I suspect that they would lose any flying ability rather quickly. Here's why: If you own a cat, you probably have an emotional attachment to it. Perhaps that's a strong attachment. You'd be pretty...
Yes and No Quantum mechanics is full of probability. You simply can't get around it. You can never know for sure if a particle at time $t$ in the future will be at point $A$ or point $B$. Quantum ...
If a universe is a simulation, then, logically, it must have all the natural laws built into it. Agreed? Now, if it is a deterministic universe - that is a universe where, theoretically, you could ...
Physical properties If Jupiter turns into a star, it would likely turn into the least massive star possible. This would make it a red dwarf - in particular, a red dwarf of spectral type M9V. We ca...
Not a lot would be different, actually. Let's take the orbits of the planets around the Sun. In the Newtonian world, gravity is represented by Newton's law of universal gravitation: $$F=G\frac{m_1...
A planet could definitely have multiple gas layers. As was discussed here, gravity affects different gases differently, based on their mass. In other words, there would be more force between the Ea...
I think we've established that this monstrous object is going to have to be pretty darn big. You suggested that it could be 500 kilometers in diameter; let's do the calculations to figure out just ...
The first thing that comes to mind is an incredibly large volcanic eruption. And I mean a huge eruption. Something never before seen on Earth. One of the largest (if not the largest) eruptions we k...
Under the circumstances you describe, my immediate reaction is that it would not be possible. The issue here is that the cluster would be fairly unstable. The black holes would all be mutually attr...
Let's say you have a planet pretty similar to Earth. It resembles Earth at around the time life is thought to have begun - except that it's a bit less hostile to life. The atmosphere is mainly carb...
My choices: Ganymede and Callisto (and maybe Titan) This is perhaps a bit of a buzzkill, but I honestly would not recommend colonizing much in the solar system besides the Moon and Mars. Here's wh...
This is really sort of cheating, but it could actually work, so here it goes. As professorfish says, It is theoretically possible, but I don't know how you could rip off the atmosphere and man...
As Neil pointed out, there is no absolute frame of reference, so I'll pretend that the frame of reference is relative to something - in some scenarios, the Sun; in others, the Earth, and in others,...
I'm actually going to answer the question from the opposite viewpoint of TimB, if only because there are some loopholes to a lack of fire. They primarily apply to deep-sea civilizations, but still,...
TL;DR To make a long story short, the planet will lose its atmosphere and some of its crust, but most of it will remain intact, even in the worst-case scenario. That should be the major effect you...
This is only a partial answer (it only addresses land animals), but I don't know if anyone else is going to mention it, so I might as well. Land animals rely on their bodies to support their weigh...
I'll take a completely different approach from what everyone else is saying, because everyone (okay, sans ivy_lynx) seems to be assuming that there are asteroids in planetary rings. This is not tru...
I'm actually going to consider how such a year would affect animals, because I have a feeling nobody else is planning on addressing it. This should be short and to the point, unlike some of my othe...
I'll narrow down your list by talking about all the stars you shouldn't use. You'll find it gives you a pretty narrow range. Let's start with the exciting ones: neutron stars. These are, technical...
Actually, some of the challenges you describe might not be too hard to overcome. Maybe you've thought of the same things I have. Metals I'll tackle smelting first. The key issue you described is ...
Here you can use an actual physical field to act as a force field - in certain scenarios. Let's say you want to stop a single particle. What can you do? You can trap it. Not deflect it, in the sens...
I'll address storage of antimatter, because that is the one thing in your question humans have done successfully so far. While we may someday build an antimatter-based propulsion device, it's a way...
