Re: Sky People's solar system

   Date:         Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:58:53 -0500
   From: Padraic Brown <pbrown@...>

   Besides, how different would our astronomy be if _we_ had a whopping great
   gas giant right next door, perhaps in place of Venus!

Possibly non-existent. I just saw something in the paper about `super-
flares', solar flares about 10 million times as powerful as those from
our sun. Would cook the Earth to a depth of inches, I think it said.

However, these only occur when there's a gas giant about as close to
the sun as Mercury. But who knows: with a giant in the orbit of Venus,
the flares might only be 10 times ours --- or 100 000 times, which
would be just as bad in the long run.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)