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The Planets around Tau Ceti may be fairly volcanic
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Nova Terra appears to be the planet now known as tau Ceti e, though its semi-major axis is 41.3% farther from tau Ceti and is 25.75% as massive. While Nova Terra can be explained away as a small world somehow missed by earlier surveys, this seems a bit contrived. It might be better, IMO, to retcon Nova Terra to the confirmed tau Ceti e, with the following characteristics:

Mass: 4.3 x Earth, radius: 9749 km, distance from primary: 0.552 A.U., gravity: 1.84 g, and Year: 0.464 Earth year (213.29 Nova-days), with the other entries in the data panel staying the same.

As for a high rate of plate tectonics and volcanism on Nova Terra, volcanoes are generally are located along and beside plate boundaries, whereas orogenic uplifts (folding of rock strata upwards to form mountains) typically occurs farther from those boundaries. If, as is proposed, magmatic viscosity is reduced in planets orbiting magnesium-enriched stars like tau Ceti, the main effects would be an increased rate of plate travel and a corresponding increase in the rate of emergence of "hotspot" volcanoes. Increased volcanism leads to increased emissions of sulfur oxides, carbon dioxide, and water vapor, which may, in turn, lead to increased atmospheric warming (which would be at least partly offset by the cooling effects of sulfur aerosols).

Just a few notions,

Radtech497
"I'd much rather see you on my side, than scattered into... atoms." Ming the Merciless, Ruler of the Universe
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RE: The Planets around Tau Ceti may be fairly volcanic - by radtech497 - 02-16-2017, 04:46 PM

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