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Speculation on water loss
Posted By: GradyDate: 9/25/03 1:29 a.m.

Hi all,

I think I have another possible explanation why the water level on Halo seems to have fallen. It may be because Halo can't hold hydrogen.

On planets, water is slowly lost by water vapor in the upper atmosphere being dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen by ultraviolet light. Mostly the H2 and O2 gas recombine into water (or go off and become part of some other compound), but H2 has a very low molecular weight, so H2 molecules at a given temperature are moving quite fast -- fast enough that some of them on the far tail-end of the velocity distribution will have escape velocity and, barring collisions with other molecules, will leave the planet forever. Once that happens, the water molecule that hydrogen came from can never re-form. (Oxygen and most other gases are heavy enough that they can't do this trick on a Earth-sized world, and the hydrogen loss is also very slow on Earth. IIRC Mars, on the other hand, lost a lot of water this way...)

What does this mean for Halo? Depending on how it gets its gravity (artificial gravity seems likely to me, but I don't know if there's any conclusive evidence either way), it's probably much easier for gases to escape Halo than any planet. I suspect that Halo can't hold any atmosphere over geologic time, and it seems likely that, compared to a planet, it would leak hydrogen like a sieve, leading to the fall in water levels that others have noticed on levels such as 343 Guilty Spark.

--Grady

Message Index



Replies:

Speculation on water lossGrady 9/25/03 1:29 a.m.
     Re: Speculation on water lossInfininja 9/25/03 3:58 p.m.
           Re: Speculation on water lossGrady 9/25/03 4:59 p.m.
                 Re: Speculation on water lossInfininja 9/25/03 5:55 p.m.
                       Re: Speculation on water lossAlianAnt 9/25/03 6:05 p.m.
                             Re: Speculation on water lossInfininja 9/25/03 6:12 p.m.
                                   Re: Speculation on water lossGrady 9/25/03 10:14 p.m.
                 Re: Speculation on water lossViscily II 9/29/03 6:54 p.m.
     Re: Speculation on water lossMicahst 9/25/03 8:56 p.m.
           Re: Speculation on water lossMicahst 9/25/03 9:02 p.m.
     Re: Speculation on water lossPlastic Chicken 9/25/03 10:43 p.m.
           Re: Speculation on water lossPlastic Chicken 9/25/03 10:46 p.m.
                 Re: Speculation on water lossInfininja 9/25/03 10:54 p.m.
                       Re: Speculation on water lossPlastic Chicken 9/27/03 10:01 p.m.
           Re: Speculation on water lossGrady 9/26/03 12:16 a.m.
                 Re: Speculation on water lossGrady 9/26/03 2:09 a.m.
                       Re: Speculation on water lossInfininja 9/26/03 7:19 a.m.
                             Re: Speculation on water lossGrady 9/26/03 12:12 p.m.
                                   Re: Speculation on water lossInfininja 9/26/03 1:21 p.m.
                       Re: Speculation on water lossPlastic Chicken 9/28/03 1:25 a.m.
                             I meant m/s/s *NM* *NM*Plastic Chicken 9/28/03 2:06 a.m.
     Re: Speculation on water lossDwain 9/29/03 7:37 a.m.
           Re: Flood alter the atmosphere?Wado SG 9/29/03 1:21 p.m.



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