Is it possible to build a planet

How long would it take us to finish this planetary construction project? Rocky planets like Earth are born from the leftover material of a newly formed star. They start off as grains of dust smaller than the width of a human hair. Then these grains fuse into larger chunks that keep colliding with each other until, after a few million years, they develop into a new terrestrial world.

Theoretically, we understand how planets are formed in the Universe. But how would we go about manufacturing an artificial one? That would help us maintain Earth-like temperatures on our artificial planet. But where would we find all the materials to build it? Asteroids might seem a good source. The problem is, the Earth has the mass of over 2, asteroid belts. However, this analogy is not quite apt though nothing humanity has ever done really compares to building a Death Star.

While the artificial world would requires an ridiculous amount of metal, moving those giant hunks around in space could be much easier with the right machines, anyway than working in a broiling desert beset by gravity. Also consider the internal structure. The Death Star includes more than 21, floors stacked like stories in an office building. This configuration would never be feasible—unless we invented some kind of artificial gravity generators to keep people, furniture, and droids rooted to the floor.

Earth-like gravity would be absolutely essential for long-term living. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have to deal with bone mass loss and low blood pressure, among other issues, from extended stays in microgravity. Alas, artificial gravity generators defy known physics. Instead, the artificial lunar megastructure would need to rotate to produce gravity, via centrifugal force, outwardly along its equator.

Instead of stacked floors, habitat levels in an artificial moon could resemble layers in an onion. In an inverse of terrestrial reckoning, occupants' heads, instead of their feet, would face "down" toward the megastructure's center.

Gravity, too, would be backwards. Getting rotation itself would be simple. Angled rockets could start the whole thing spinning and maintain it at the rate required for Earth-like gravity. The rockets would not need to continuously fire, either. Yet rotating the artificial moon creates fresh problems. The sections of the structure subjected to one Earth gravity or more would have to possess a high enough strength-to-weight ratio to keep from ripping apart.

Email Print Facebook Reddit Twitter. This entry was posted in -- By the Physicist , Astronomy , Physics. Bookmark the permalink. Starfish says:. April 11, at pm. The Cool Dude says:.

March 30, at pm. April 14, at am. Jina says:. October 10, at am. October 19, at pm. Mike says:. November 25, at pm. June 3, at am. Manual Pangowish says:. October 22, at pm. Dan says:. January 15, at am. Jay says:. Jake says:. May 7, at am. GDL says:. June 7, at am. Ok, people. Let me borrow a shovel from my neighbour and I can help build that planet. Me says:. July 24, at pm. Fifi Paus says:.

September 10, at pm. Rajesh Swarnkar says:. July 16, at am. But a variety of factors could mean that those worlds are as different from Earth as Venus, a solar system world often heralded as Earth's twin that is at times hot enough to melt lead. Ishimaru's advisor, Elizabeth Tasker, worried that these planets were too-often viewed as true Earth twins , identical to our own world in their ability to allow life to evolve, when in fact they are likely to be dramatically different.

With this in mind, she set off to build a website where anyone could probe how small changes in planetary conditions could change its habitability. Planetary scientists have a wealth of models that they can tweak to demonstrate the effect of several different conditions on a planet all at once. By adjusting a variety of inputs, researchers can get a better handle on what kind of conditions are most likely to prevail on far-away planets.

But most of these models are very computationally intensive, beyond what a regular space fan can run on their home computers. And they are rarely user friendly, Tasker added. Instead, she turned her eyes toward a few key elements of planetary conditions that impact the carbon cycle , which moves carbon from Earth's atmosphere to its rocks and back again.

Carbon helps to regulate the planet's temperature and makes life as we know it possible. On Earth, most carbon is stored in rocks and sediments, the ocean and the atmosphere. A gentle rain can kick off the carbon cycle, as atmospheric carbon combines with water that falls to the surface.

The resulting acid dissolves rock through chemical weathering to release a variety of ions.