M
mithridates
Guest
Just curious what is going to happen to Ceres as the sun begins to heat up over the next few billion years (assuming we don't get to it and build settlements). I see the maximum temperature measured there so far has been only -38C, and given the vast amounts of water (probably) below the surface, what would happen to it were it to heat up?<br /><br />Oh, and while we're at it I noticed a thread from about a year back about terraforming Ceres on another board. One poster mentioned that to get the required bar of pressure on Ceres one would require some 200 km of atmosphere, which would trail behind the 'planet' and make it into something like a comet. I believe he was assuming that we are going with a breathable atmosphere identical to that of the Earth, and in addition to that a full bar wouldn't be necessary either - a bit over half a bar should do fine. What is the heaviest potential atmosphere that could be created that would still support animal and plant life? If there is enough O2 and CO2 and anything else necessary, it shouldn't matter if the rest of the atmosphere is made up of another gas besides nitrogen. Or am I way off base here, as is often the case? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>