• Question: If you had to create a whole new planet what would you call it, what would it be like and why?

    Asked by jessstphils to Vera, Steve, Sam, Katie, Ed on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Great question – I could spend hours answering! I’d call it Terra Vera or something – after all, I created it. It would have the same atmosphere as Earth and the same distance from a sun similar to ours. Only the sun would be pink, because I like pink. I would make sure that there are lots of elements on the planet to allow for life – carbon, nitrogen, trace elements, etc. There would also be lots of water for life to get started. Then I’d make sure there are initially lots of thunderstorms (I once heard that they can create the kind of molecules needed to start life). Once life get’s going, I’d lean back and enjoy the show. Hopefully as a planet creator I have a few milion years to live so I can watch life unfold!

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I’d go for a similar feel to Vera except I would call it Bob.

      Definitely lots of thunder storms to get those chemicals forming. I might interfer every now and again if life on Earth wasn’t evolving how I would like. For example I hate moths so I would make sur they disappeared!

    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Interesting, I like being asked what would I do if i was God!

      I would call my planet Steveworld, because I am feeling unimaginative right now! I would make it orbit a star similar to our sun, because the sun will live for long enough to allow life to evolve. I would make it very similar to Earth – almost identical in fact, because the one thing I would want to do is see if life could start over again, would it end up with animals very similar to what we have now, or would it go down a completely different path? If there was one experiment I could do, it would be that one.

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Like the others, I would put the planet a similar distance from a similar sun to ours. But I would make it just a water planet, with no land. Then I would get lots of sea-life to look at, and it would be interesting to see if you could re-evolve something like a whale but without evolving mammals (which evolved on land before going back into the sea in the form of whales and dolphins).

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I would steal an idea from a book I read. My planet would be in the shape of a massive rotating ring with a sun in the middle. Night and day are controlled by giant shields that rotate inside the ring to shade parts of the ring for a few hours at a time.

      People would live on floating islands in a giant sea, but they can move their islands (like huge boats) so they can travel to new places. So when you go on holiday you could stay at home and just sail to somewhere new.

Comments

  • Photo: jessstphils

    jessstphils commented on :

    Thanks all of you! I think if I created a planet I would mix all of your great ideas so I would make the sun pink with ring around it and have all the living things never die. Then no one would be sad!
    I would call it Jess’sPlanet (I like to keep things quite simple).