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Via Randy McDonald:

The Steppenwolf: A proposal for a habitable planet in interstellar space

Rogue planets have been ejected from their planetary system. We investigate the possibility that a rogue planet could maintain a liquid ocean under layers of thermally-insulating water ice and frozen atmosphere as a result of geothermal heat flux. We find that a rogue planet of Earth-like composition and age could maintain a subglacial liquid ocean if it were ~3.5 times more massive than Earth. If a rogue planet had about ten times higher water mass fraction or a thick cryo- atmospheric layer, it would need to be only ~0.3 times the mass of Earth to maintain a liquid ocean. Such a planet could be detected from reflected solar radiation and its thermal emission could be characterized in the far-IR if it passed within O(1000) AU of Earth.

Date: 2011-02-11 05:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scott-sanford.livejournal.com
Get your planet going
Head out of the system
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes your way

Yeah, darlin'
Gonna make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space


This is interesting, but there's no commentary on how long this is stable. Without insolation, I suspect it is not viable over deep time. Millions of years, yes, but hardly a good idea for the really long haul.

On the other hand, this would make a breathtaking brute force generation ship.

Decelerating at the other end seems problematic.

Date: 2011-02-11 07:17 am (UTC)
ext_196996: My avatar (Default)
From: [identity profile] johnreiher.livejournal.com
Sounds like Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta on the road again!

Date: 2011-02-11 10:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] oh6.livejournal.com
That would have made for an interesting alternative fate for the iced-over planet in Across the Sea of Suns, although it doesn't really fit the story.

Date: 2011-02-11 03:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] joenotcharles.livejournal.com
"The Mondas", surely?

Date: 2011-02-16 01:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dbdatvic.livejournal.com
There's also a McAndrew Chronicles story related to this (Charles Sheffield), titled _Rogueworld_. The rogue world is not warm at the start of the story...

--Dave

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