Terraforming Quotes

“The ultimate energy source for heating the surface of any planet or moon within the Solar System is the Sun’s luminosity. Measured in watts (or joules per second) the Sun radiates a total of L ⊙ = 3.85 × 1026 joules of energy into space per second. At a distance D from the Sun, this energy is spread over the entire surface area of a sphere of radius D, and this provides the energy per second per unit area (the so-called energy flux F) for heating a planet. Accordingly, the flux can be expressed as the ratio F = L ⊙ / 4 π D”
― Martin Beech, Terraforming: The Creating of Habitable Worlds