Planet composition of the kerbol system

[JeanHavoc]

jfx: One thing I can point out is that there are - in our universe anyway -a class of peculiar stars that have atmospheres overly enriched in Mercury, Manganese and other elements. One example I can think off of the top of my head is Alpheratz (or Alpha Andromedae if you prefer). Naturally at least in real life these stars are all very large and brilliant, but we're not seeing a one to one equivalence with KSP anyway. As to whether Kerbol could be a Population I Star or better (with a very high metallicity) I could see that being a possibility as well.

Accelerando: If somehow the planets of the Kerbol system were overly enriched in Osmium, they could be quite small and yet pack as much mass into that area as we'd find on Earth. I don't know how likely it would be for such a thing to happen in reality, but in a game with a different set of rules it would be hard to rule out. I wonder if it would be possible to determine the amount of Osmium that would be required to produce the kind of results we're seeing in game.

[r_rolo1]

The center of the top part does resemble a giant crater that covers like 1/4 the planet.. There appear to be smaller craters scattered around as well.

More, that crater is on the Jool side of Laythe ( Laythe is tidally locked with Jool ). My theory is that something very massive and dense hit Laythe and that a substantial chunk of it is still there below surface....

[Monkthespy]

It was aliens who made the planets. Ask aliens.

Nono but I think Kerbin is a ocean/oxygen system, including Laythe due to how similar everything works there. It's just...dead there. Jool is something like Chlorine, most likely.

[BlackShadow03]

I'm actually more interested in where Eve got it's massive supply of Mercury. That element is not particularly common in our own Solar System - well at least not enough to fill up entire seas. Perhaps the solar nebula that world condensed out of had quite a different materials allotment than ours did. I wonder if all the planets, Kerbin included, are overly enriched with heavy metals?

It wouldn't necessarily have to be Mercury that makes up those silver oceans. Being a Venus equivalent, it likely has a rather high base temperature. Those oceans can be formed from any silvery metal with a low melting point, like Lead or Zinc. Or even an alloy thereof (Lead and Zinc together, for example, has an even lower melting point then either metal on its own).

[jfx]

I've thought that the Kerbal universe might have some slightly different constants  the gravitational constant is the same between the game's world and our own, but perhaps some constant key to electromagnetism, the strong force, or the weak force is different?

This is an interesting concept, many smart men have put much thought into it. Building it into a case as proof or counterproof for the works of some deity. (If a constant would be significantly different from the ones in our universe there would most likely be no possibility for higher/intelligent life)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle

Oh and jet engines work on laythe/eve because the jet engines only check for atmosphere, not for oxygen etc. Again: If this is because it is NYI or by design - only squad knows.

Edited October 8, 2012 by jfx

[KAO]

judging by this picture, can anyone tell what Jool is composed of?

[r_rolo1]

It depends of if Jool has oxygen or not ( aka do jet engines work in Jool? ). If not, most likely a high content in chlorine . if it has oxygen ... well things are more complicated :/

[AHO]

judging by this picture, can anyone tell what Jool is composed of?

It looks like chlorine which would make sense given the color. It gets yellower at the surface indicating there is another chemical involved.

[JeanHavoc]

It wouldn't necessarily have to be Mercury that makes up those silver oceans. Being a Venus equivalent, it likely has a rather high base temperature. Those oceans can be formed from any silvery metal with a low melting point, like Lead or Zinc. Or even an alloy thereof (Lead and Zinc together, for example, has an even lower melting point then either metal on its own).

Interesting point here, I'd just heard it was Mercury ran ran with it. There are elements like Gallium that are solid at room temperature, but melt at slightly higher temperatures. It's also a fact that at the surface of Venus itself temperatures are hot enough to melt Lead and (as you point out) if Eve is a true analog than those "seas" could be simply large reservoirs of a variety of metals. Still it raises questions as to why we'd observe such bodies of liquid on Eve and not Venus, what was the difference that produced such an intriguing difference. Moreover, why does Eve have a clear atmosphere, devoid of cloud banks. One possibility is that it's so hot that there are no volatiles condensing at those temperatures. This would be the reason why hot Jovians (within a certain temperature range) would appear deep blue; rayleigh scattering would do its work while cloud banks would fail to form. Not sure how likely that would be, but this is a game we're talking about, so one can't rule it out. Still, it makes one wonder how the Kerbals land there and survive too!