Starship Asterisk*

Hello
folks signed up to this forum to comment on APOD pictures & also to ask a some questions

I was wondering whether it would be theoretically possible for another earth to exist that was 100 times bigger than the earth?
I am thinking that this wouldn't be possible because of the increased gravity that would come with a planet 100 times bigger.

Simon

Drifterman wrote:I was wondering whether it would be theoretically possible for another earth to exist that was 100 times bigger than the earth?
I am thinking that this wouldn't be possible because of the increased gravity that would come with a planet 100 times bigger.

That is generally correct. The answer turns out to be quite complex if you look at the problem closely, because you probably don't have to get much more massive than the Earth before you don't even have a terrestrial planet anymore, but more of a hybrid between that and a gas giant. In principle, you could imagine a planet 100 times larger than the Earth in diameter or surface area, but with a 1G surface gravity. But I don't think something like that can come into existence naturally. Similarly, you could imagine a planet with 100 times the mass, but large enough to have a low surface gravity. Again, probably not a possible natural body.

Hello Chris
Thank you for taking the time to answer my first post

Simon