604
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
604 points (96.5% liked)
Mildly Interesting
17327 readers
5 users here now
This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
Just post some stuff and don't spam.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Since you seem to be knowledgeable and I'd like to continue discussion, do you think there are "earth like" dwarf planets that could support life?
Probably not. At least not earth like. Planets have to be sufficiently large to maintain an atmosphere.
It may be possible for one like an ice moon to harbor life, but it needs something to generate heat and prevent the ocean from freezing solid.
I suppose there could also be a situation where the planet is sufficiently large to retain an atmosphere, but somehow hasn't cleared it's orbit.
Earth like? No. They're too small to hold any reasonable atmosphere. That doesn't rule out life, but it's unlikely. They're also likely too small to have subsurface oceans or things like that without being tied to a planet and having strong tidal forces squishing it, in which case it'd be a moon not a dwarf planet.