How Gaseous, Neptune-Like Planets Can Become Habitable

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 30, 2015 @05:30AM from the how-to-terraform-your-neighbor-in-six-easy-steps dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Life as we know it requires small, rocky planets. The gas giants of our solar system aren't habitable (to our knowledge), but a research team has discovered that smaller, Neptune-like planets can be transformed into gas-free, potentially habitable worlds with a little help from red dwarf stars. Such planets are usually formed far out in a planetary system, but tidal forces can cause them to migrate inward. When they reach the habitable zone of their host star, they absorb far larger amounts of x-ray and ultraviolet radiation. This can eventually boil off most of the the gas atmosphere, leaving behind the core: a small, rocky world capable of supporting life.

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An X-Ray baked hellscape sound perfect by jandrese · 2015-01-30 05:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

This sounds like a great way to make a Mercury type planet, but I'm not so sure it will be so great at making a place you would want to live.

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