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AstronautGeologist

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    Could The Science Labs could have an extra subcategory: Earth Sciences & Geology

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    Originally posted by paleorob

    Liquid erosion features on the Mun, for example. No evidence of rift or subduction zones on Kerbin. The only planet (outside of Kerbin) that seems to show any variability in its makeup is Duna, but even its features seem odd (polar ice caps of great extent but virtually 0 depth). Without the usual suite of geochemical tools available there can only be speculation on the formation and composition of most of the bodies in the system.

    Exactly right.

    Speculation of the composition of Eve's atmosphere

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    Originally posted by Brotoro at http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26296

    But what DID get the KSC mission planners' attention were some measurements by Desdin that showed that the thick soup in

    Eve's seas is unusually rich in the fissile element blutonium, which is necessary for making nuclear rocket engines.

    Apparently, simple chemical extraction processes can separate the blutonium from the sea "water." Happily, the seas are also

    rich in cadmiumium and boronate (known neutron absorbers), so there is no danger of the seas becoming natural nuclear bombs.

    Below we see Desdin, our happy colonist on Eve, with the base habitat that was dropped to him in an earlier mission.

    Not everyone is convinced by Desdin's reports, of course... Kerbal scientists are still hotly debating Desdin's claims that the purple chemical staining the surface of Eve is an organic compound that he says must have been deposited as tiny particles excreted from microbes inhabiting an upper region of Eve's atmosphere. But KSC officials ARE convinced about the blutonium resource, so the mission to build an Eve ascent vehicle was approved.

    Interesting!

    Speculation of the composition of Eve's atmosphere

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted · Edited by AstronautGeologist

    Question: doesn't iodine need starch to become a purple gas?

    Short Answer: Iodine - gaseous, is purple. Starch makes it purpleier, purpler; more purple.

    Long Answer: Starch is not required. (what's your science teacher smokin'? lol, aren't science teachers supposed to know what they're talking about?) Iodine is a gray/black solid which, when heated, sublimates; that is, it goes directly to the gas/vapor phase without becoming a liquid in between. Iodine gas/vapor is purple and so is iodine when dissolved in a non-polar solvent like carbon tetrachloride or benzene. The purple color indicates the presence of iodine and starch is not required. The reaction of iodine with starch is different; it reacts with starch to form a blue-black complex compound that isn't the same color as the purple gas/vapor.

    Speculation of the composition of Eve's atmosphere

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    The heavier elements differentiate towards the core of a planet hence most of the iodine would be in the core, just as most of the iron, nickel, gold, uranium, thorium, etc. Perhaps Eve got torn up by something leaving only the core. Of course, it wouldn't just be iodine, it would also be iron, nickel, gold, uranium, thorium etc. Iodine is also produced by neutron bombardment of Xenon which in itself is a byproduct of Uranium decay so perhaps it's the leftover of a giant nuclear reactor, note a planetary core and mantle is a giant thorium/uranium fission reactor. There's also neutrons from cosmic ray spallation where cosmic rays hit something sending neutrons flying. It would take tens of billions of years for the thorium and uranium of a leftover planetary core to decay into xenon and get bombarded into iodine so such a planet could not be part of a star's planetary system, stars don't live that long, it would have to be the leftover core of a rogue planet, perhaps the leftover core of a brown dwarf star. Short of a passing neutron star or black hole, I can't imagine what could strip the rest of such a planet away.

    Do you talk about space?

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted · Edited by AstronautGeologist

    Not really, because most other 14 year olds I know are too obsessed with video games, masturbation, and music videos. Apparently we like Kate Upton's "hot bod" and Black Ops II more than exploring new worlds and going where no man has gone before.

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