The 365 Days Of Astronomy, The Daily Podcast Of The International Year Of Astronomy 2009

Strange new worlds. Dear Cheap Astronomy – How big can rocky planets and how small can gas giants get? Well there is some data, so we don’t have to talk in hypotheticals. There’s a rocky planet with about 40 times Earth mass and about 3 and a half times Earth’s diameter, which is about 85% of Neptune’s diameter. So, it’s a mighty big rocky planet that’s approaching gas giant scale.   Dear Cheap Astronomy – Will we grow crops in Martian regolith? So, firstly you can’t really grow any plants from Earth on Mars since Earth plants need oxygen. While photosynthesis can make oxygen, plants don’t have vascular system that can move the oxygen around. So if there isn’t enough oxygen in the atmosphere to start with, then the roots die and the plant dies.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them to