From: davelook (davelook@gsinet.net)
Date: Tue Jun 30 1998 - 14:47:44 MDT
>> >Considering that Venus is slightly smaller than Earth, yet has a much
much
>> denser
>> >atmosphere (most likely due to its lack of a moon the size of our own),
>>
>> Is it be concievable that we don't know everything there is to know
>> about
>> gravity? Maybe gravity isn't dependent on the density/size of planet, but
>> some other variable we have yet to discover.
>> P.S. Is there a quick description of what the moon has to do with the
>> denseness of our atmosphere? Just curious.
>
>You would think that since Venus is slightly smaller, slightly less dense,
and a
>lot hotter than Earth, that its atmosphere would have boiled off quite a
while
>ago, yet its atmosphere is much denser and hotter than our own. Even
Saturn's
>moon Titan has an atmophere denser than our own, though it is slightly
cooler,
>yet Titan is not much bigger than our own moon. There is a distinct
correlation
>between atmospheric density and tidal influence. Compared to its surface
>gravity, Earth has the highest level of tidal influence, yet
proportionately the
>lowest atmospheric density of all bodies in the entire solar system. This
cannot
>be an accident.
>
>--
>TANSTAAFL!!!
> Michael Lorrey
You seem to be saying that the more "tidal influence" a body has, the
rarer its atmosphere will be. Is that correct?
Dave L.
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