[arethuza]

That massive a planet might have a thick enough atmosphere to compensate for its distance from the star?

e.g. Wasn't Mars 'warm' for quite a long time and only became really cold once it lost most of its atmosphere due to its small mass?

[PopeDotNinja]

Titan has a darn thick atmosphere, and it's a moon of Saturn. I don't see any reason the planet from the article couldn't have an atmosphere.

[saiya-jin]

Isn't some of the atmosphere being replenished from its inner geology? Also IIRC Mars lost its atmosphere due to solar winds and lack of good protective magnetic field, unlike earth with its radioactivity-fed one. I would expect Titan has it neither, but is much farther from Sun so solar winds must be a tiny fraction of intensity out there.

[ourlordcaffeine]

>IIRC Mars lost its atmosphere due to solar winds and lack of good protective magnetic field

Someone in the know correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is no longer the main theory, as solar wind ablation is too slow to make such a huge impact. I believe the popular explanation now is that geological reactions, i.e. gas reacting with rocks and being sequestered, played a larger part.

[zipwitch]

Solar wind as the culprit was still being tossed around in 2017.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-maven-reveals-most-... "The new result reveals that solar wind and radiation were responsible for most of the atmospheric loss on Mars, and the depletion was enough to transform the Martian climate."

[ourlordcaffeine]

Ah, maybe I read that geological processes were ruled out rather than being the main driver

[eloff]

Radioactivity fed? Indirectly by producing heat and motion in the core?

[ryanmercer]

Titan keeps its atmosphere, in part, because of Saturn's magnetosphere. It is inside it something like 95% of the time.

[nkrisc]

As I understand it didn't become cold because it lost its atmosphere, it lost its atmosphere because it became cold (core solidified weakening the magnetic field). It's core solidified much sooner than Earth's will because it has much less mass so it cooled quicker.