On Jan 19, 2:54pm, carl feynman wrote:
> >(Having a large moon has
> >sometimes been cited as a 'reason' for Earth to be fecund.)
> By whom, and on what grounds? I read this in a Larry Niven story years
> ago, but I don't recall seeing it anywhere more authoritative.
Asimov, on the grounds that it caused there to be more radioactive
elements in the crust, leading to a higher mutation rate. (Spacer Robots
Empire Foundation universe.) And I've heard of the moon sucking off
atmosphere, to avoid being like Venus. (Was that Niven?) I've also
heard that the latter is discredited.
I can provide some actual knowledge, I hope, in saying that the moon
probably has much less to do with the large amount of uranium in the
crust than the fact that uranium oxide contains 6 oxygen atoms, giving a
compound which is quite happy to float.
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Received on Mon Jan 19 20:29:37 1998
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