3318: Earth Sized Planets

Earth Sized Planets

|< < Prev #3318 (October 30, 2026)

Title text: It probably has an icy mantle over the real silicate geology, but I'm hoping something weird happened to burn off most of the water like with Io.

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Explanation

This is one of 59 incomplete explanations: This page was created recently on a ROCKY, EARTH-SIZED PLANET. Don't remove this notice too soon. You can help by editing the explanation!

Cueball and Ponytail are discussing the possibility of the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory discovering an Earth-sized object in the far reaches of the Solar System, as one of several so far unsupported hypothetical candidates as the next Planet Nine, or Ten, that might be on the cusp of being discovered. It would have to be very distant, however, as well as Pluto being smaller than our Moon and discovered a century ago with Earth-based telescopes, the gravitational effects of an Earth-sized object in the vicinity of Pluto should already have been detected.

Cueball is intrigued by Ponytail's initial imagery, of a planet similar to Earth but with internal heat to make up for the limited heat it would be able to receive from the Sun. In his mind, this leads straight to the exciting possibility that it might even harbor life. Ponytail, being a geologist, has another objective in mind. She is more excited by the idea that it might have plate tectonics, which none of the other terrestrial planets have to any significant degree (excluding, perhaps, some of the moons of the gas giants, especially those where there is a possibly mobile ice surface rather than rocky plates such as Earth has).

The title text continues with the geologist's bias towards being interested in rock-based situations (i.e. silicates) by dismissing the presence of water-ice (a possible hint of the presence of liquid water, an assumed prerequisite for life). Though they expect there to be a layer of ice, they would rather that this would somehow go away in order that the 'real surface' could be studied properly.

This comic may have been inspired by the actual discovery of an "enormous dwarf planet" by the VCRO, although this is still far from being an Earth-sized planet.

Transcript

This is one of 40 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. You can help by editing the transcript!

[Cueball and Ponytail are walking side by side.]

Ponytail: If there's an earth-sized object in the outer solar system, the Rubin Observatory should find it soon.

[Cueball and Ponytail continue to walk, Ponytail raises her left hand a bit.]

Ponytail: If it's Earth-sized, it might have a rocky surface and internal heat.

[They stop, and Ponytail turns to face Cueball, raising her arms above her head.]

Ponytail: If it has a rocky surface and internal heat, it might have-

Cueball: Life?

Ponytail: Plate tectonics!

[They continue walking, Ponytails hands are out in front of her.]

Cueball: You geologists have weird priorities.

Ponytail: Earth just can't be the only one!

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