Can Kerbol system exist in the real world

[manaiaK]

... sane Kerballer ...

Thanks for the laugh! (*maniac cackle*)

But I agree. KSP is a testament to the power of the Agile Programming principles DTSTTCPW and YAGNI --- especially YAGNI, so it's exactly right for the game that the Kerbolar system is only quasi-stable for 100 years.

Edited October 19, 2015 by manaiaK
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[problemecium]

*googles those acornyms*

I learned something today! Those do sound like very good programming principles.

And perhaps the Kerbolar system being doomed to fall apart after a century or two is good motivation for the Kerbals to go explore the planets while they're still around.

[Findthepin1]

I used a calculator at astro.twam.info/hz/. I put Kerbol's parameters into it from the wiki information (5840 K, 5.67E24 watts luminosity, 9.148 Jupiter masses). According to this, Kerbol's habitable zone is like this:

Approximate inner habitable zone limit: 0.085 AU

Approximate outer habitable zone limit: 0.217 AU

This means Eve, at 0.0657 AU, isn't a stable environment. While the majority of the planet can support liquid water, there are areas on the equator that go slightly above the boiling temperature of water at periapsis. Based on this climate graph of Eve, this area is always under 1km elevation at the equator, or 500 meters elevation at 10 degrees north or south. If Eve's oceans are water, there might be transient boiling of the oceans a couple weeks a year in this area. This would add to the greenhouse effect and widen the area, starting a small but accelerating positive feedback effect that evaporates the oceans and thickens the atmosphere and Eve ends up more like a super-Venus. If 35% of Eve's surface (my guess) is ocean averaging 3 kilometres deep (again my guess) gives me 6468000 cubic kilometres of water, which weighs 6.468E18 kg. Based on Eve's atmospheric mass and pressure, the extra gas would increase the surface pressure to 170.2 atm. That's it for anything on Eve, then.

Kerbin is within the habitable zone, at 0.091 AU from Kerbol. It's fine, although it's quite near the inner edge.

Surprisingly, Duna is closer to the centre of the habitable zone than Kerbin is. Duna is at 0.138 AU.

Dres dips almost to the outer edge of the habitable zone, with a periapsis of 0.233 AU.

Moho, Jool and Eeloo are far from the habitable zone. By the way, this means we may or may not need another explanation for Laythe's anomalously high temperature.

[problemecium]

I think we settled on tidal heating as the reason for Laythe's temperature.

And I wouldn't be so sure about life not surviving at 170 atmospheres. It does just fine deep in the ocean on Earth, where pressures go up to thousands of atmospheres. The boiling might be a problem though xP

[fredinno]

I think a question just as interesting would be asking how the Kerbol System could form in the first place!

[GeneralVeers]

That says Kerbol shouldn't exist in the real world, but is there a way to create such a low mass star in the real world naturally? Like if some coincidental can start fusion even without enough mass?

It's not merely a problem of getting the fusion process started.

The reason a star is a star is because the inward force exerted by gravity is balanced by the outward force created by the fusion process. If a star isn't massive enough (the minimum required mass is around 75 times the mass of Jupiter), the heat generated by fusion will cause the star to expand--reducing its interior pressure until the fusion process stops. Regardless of whether the fusion process gets a jump start, insufficient mass = the star's fusion engine fizzles out.

So does that mean if I add more mass to it, it will become a type 1a supernova?also, can a whote dwarf be so light weight?

If you add enough mass quickly enough--very possibly.

Enough mass added quickly enough = the star will begin to collapse in on itself. The momentum of the infalling matter will cause it to continue inwards for a period of time even after fusion ignites--and as the pressure increases, the fusion process accelerates. It would all depend on how fast the star is collapsing when it reaches the fusion point.

This is a similar principle to that used by implosion-triggered nuclear warheads. The explosive shell shoves the reaction mass in on itself at high speed, so that the detonation takes time to repel the implosion and the mass remains supercritical for a longer period of time. Greater inward velocity = bigger boom.

[regex]

Kerbol's radius places it in the realm of a low-end M-class star but it's still not massive enough for that. If corrected, the entire system will be stable, as I've heard it, but using the values directly from the game makes the system unstable. Then there's the impossible densities, as noted in many posts here.

The Kerbol system, in a nutshell, cannot possibly exist.

[Luckless]

Cannot possibly exist as a natural system.

However it could, theoretically at least, be created by other means. After all, gravity pressure isn't the only way to achieve and maintain fusion.

[MichaelPoole]

I used a calculator at astro.twam.info/hz/. I put Kerbol's parameters into it from the wiki information (5840 K, 5.67E24 watts luminosity, 9.148 Jupiter masses). According to this, Kerbol's habitable zone is like this:

Approximate inner habitable zone limit: 0.085 AU

Approximate outer habitable zone limit: 0.217 AU

This means Eve, at 0.0657 AU, isn't a stable environment. While the majority of the planet can support liquid water, there are areas on the equator that go slightly above the boiling temperature of water at periapsis. Based on this climate graph of Eve, this area is always under 1km elevation at the equator, or 500 meters elevation at 10 degrees north or south. If Eve's oceans are water, there might be transient boiling of the oceans a couple weeks a year in this area. This would add to the greenhouse effect and widen the area, starting a small but accelerating positive feedback effect that evaporates the oceans and thickens the atmosphere and Eve ends up more like a super-Venus. If 35% of Eve's surface (my guess) is ocean averaging 3 kilometres deep (again my guess) gives me 6468000 cubic kilometres of water, which weighs 6.468E18 kg. Based on Eve's atmospheric mass and pressure, the extra gas would increase the surface pressure to 170.2 atm. That's it for anything on Eve, then.

Kerbin is within the habitable zone, at 0.091 AU from Kerbol. It's fine, although it's quite near the inner edge.

Surprisingly, Duna is closer to the centre of the habitable zone than Kerbin is. Duna is at 0.138 AU.

Dres dips almost to the outer edge of the habitable zone, with a periapsis of 0.233 AU.

Moho, Jool and Eeloo are far from the habitable zone. By the way, this means we may or may not need another explanation for Laythe's anomalously high temperature.

Actually, real life Earth is close to the inner edge of the habitable zone and our oceans will boil in 2.5 billion years at best. Eve's seas are explodium, not water and it is clearly intended as a Venus analog.