Venus
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 31 March 2014 04:37 (ten years ago) link
I mean, I don't believe in a biblical "Hell," but Venus is hellish and imo more horrifying than Jupiter. Jupiter is just a big gas ball.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 31 March 2014 04:38 (ten years ago) link
They're all impossible. There is no god.
― Eric H., Monday, 31 March 2014 04:39 (ten years ago) link
The gas giants are just like blowing cigarette smoke into a soap bubble, except on a totally enormous scale. I voted for Neptune, so I'm not immune to their charms, but I find the rocky planets way more fascinating.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 31 March 2014 04:43 (ten years ago) link
rocky-ist
― mattresslessness, Monday, 31 March 2014 04:49 (ten years ago) link
I mean look at Jupiter, that...thing is for all intents and purposes "two houses over". what the hell is even going on there?
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Monday, 31 March 2014 05:02 (ten years ago) link
yeah i feel like the gas planets get docked a little since you can't imagine being *on* them like earth, and yet....those things are some serious happenings.
― ryan, Monday, 31 March 2014 05:05 (ten years ago) link
the cross-sections you see of the giants don't clear anything up, they just pile on the perversities.
Uranus: "the base of the mantle may comprise an ocean of liquid diamond, with floating solid 'diamond-bergs'. gtfo, p_p
― mattresslessness, Monday, 31 March 2014 05:18 (ten years ago) link
we are fucked
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Monday, 31 March 2014 05:25 (ten years ago) link
hard to understand anything without a "surface" but i'm the giants are out there with their unfathomable proportions and hitchcockian cloud formations.
― mattresslessness, Monday, 31 March 2014 05:28 (ten years ago) link
remember when nasa fired Gallileo into Jupiter and it lasted for like an hour before it was crushed by the overwhelming pressure
"It entered the atmosphere of Jupiter at 30 miles per second (46km per second), the highest impact speed ever achieved by a man-made object. Amazingly, Jupiter’s dense atmosphere slowed the craft to 0.07 miles per second (0.12km per second) in just four minutes. The probe’s heat shield, made of carbon phenolic, was able to withstand the 15,500°C ball of plasma caused by this sudden deceleration, producing light brighter than the Sun’s surface."
Jupiter, man.
― Clay, Monday, 31 March 2014 06:11 (ten years ago) link
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/redspot_cassini.gif
― explain in the most simplest ways as i am only 13 & frankly quite dumb (soref), Monday, 31 March 2014 10:48 (ten years ago) link
going with Uranus because of its weird axial tilt
― silverfish, Monday, 31 March 2014 14:18 (ten years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Uranus_clouds.jpg/257px-Uranus_clouds.jpg
― silverfish, Monday, 31 March 2014 14:20 (ten years ago) link
holy shit clay xp
― marcos, Monday, 31 March 2014 14:23 (ten years ago) link
am tempted to vote jupiter.
venus is really fascinating too:
Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition (Venus is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth). However, it has also been shown to be very different from Earth in other respects. It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, consisting of more than 96% carbon dioxide which absorbs over 95% of the incoming solar radiation. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of Earth's. With a mean surface temperature of 735 K (462 °C; 863 °F), Venus has the hottest surface of any planet in the Solar System except for the surface of the solid core of Uranus. It has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features, nor does it seem to have any organic life to absorb it in biomass. Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light. Venus may have possessed oceans in the past,[13][14] but these would have vaporized as the temperature rose.[15] The water has most probably photodissociated, and, because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field, the free hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by the solar wind.[16] Venus's surface is a dry desertscape interspersed with slab-like rocks and periodically refreshed by volcanism.
from wikipedia
― marcos, Monday, 31 March 2014 14:25 (ten years ago) link
mars is completely overrated. the red surface is cool but other than that it's just a cold bare rock. same with mercury (except merc is hot obviously), just not much going on there.
venus vs jupiter for me
― marcos, Monday, 31 March 2014 14:26 (ten years ago) link
Saturn because it gave us Sun Ra
― nitro-burning funny car (Moodles), Monday, 31 March 2014 14:30 (ten years ago) link
I have been convinced by the Jupiter love in this thread. Jupiter owns.
― emil.y, Monday, 31 March 2014 14:34 (ten years ago) link
?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b0DMoPLIys
― tsrobodo, Monday, 31 March 2014 14:41 (ten years ago) link
http://cimg.carsforsale.com/569434/7bb5c4a8-0fa9-4ac2-bb22-7b85427b5001.jpg
― pplains, Monday, 31 March 2014 14:56 (ten years ago) link
agreed that mars is the most overrated
i want to say that mercury is the most underrated, but i'm not sure. a lot of that is dependent on my idea of how fucking MONSTROUS the sunrise must be there. also, the rotation of mercury is very strange - its years are 88 earth days, but it completes a rotation every 176 earth days. that creates some really strange things with sunrises:
At some places on Mercury’s surface, an observer could see the Sun rise about halfway, reverse its course, then set, all over the course of one Mercurial day. This happens about four days prior to perihelion, because Mercury’s angular orbital velocity is equal to its angular rotational velocity. This causes the apparent motion of the Sun to stop. Once Mercury achieves perihelion, its angular orbital velocity exceeds the angular rotational velocity and the Sun begins to move in reverse.i tried to search for artist renderings of sunrises on mercury but found nothing. but in my mind it's completely amazing, because it's a combo of it taking so LONG and the sun being so enormous. i feel like that magic moment when the sun first barely emerges over the horizon would be magnified 1000x on mercury
i tried to search for artist renderings of sunrises on mercury but found nothing. but in my mind it's completely amazing, because it's a combo of it taking so LONG and the sun being so enormous. i feel like that magic moment when the sun first barely emerges over the horizon would be magnified 1000x on mercury
― Karl Malone, Monday, 31 March 2014 15:02 (ten years ago) link
uh, that second paragraph is not a quote from universetoday.com, just in case you couldn't tell
― Karl Malone, Monday, 31 March 2014 15:03 (ten years ago) link
Haha, I liked the shift in tone there for a moment.
― pplains, Monday, 31 March 2014 15:05 (ten years ago) link
the idea that extraterrestrial planets can be overrated is very o_O to me
― dan m, Monday, 31 March 2014 15:13 (ten years ago) link
tsrobodo, that, and:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf3iWc6krj8&feature=kp
― emil.y, Monday, 31 March 2014 15:14 (ten years ago) link
although I suppose pluto is overrated itt xp
― dan m, Monday, 31 March 2014 15:14 (ten years ago) link
Oh, did https non-embedding thing - it was 'Fred Vom Jupiter', anyway.xp
― emil.y, Monday, 31 March 2014 15:15 (ten years ago) link
The thing about Jupiter is that one of its satellites (Io) is as interesting and beautiful as any planet, another may harbor liquid water oceans (Europa), and there are two more big moons, at least 63 small ones, and a ring system too.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/jupiter/gal_io2_47971.jpgIo, not visibly exploding at the moment.
― Congratulations! And my condolences. (Sanpaku), Monday, 31 March 2014 16:32 (ten years ago) link
God, I love Io.
― Eric H., Monday, 31 March 2014 16:36 (ten years ago) link
lol it looks like a moldy cheese ball
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 31 March 2014 16:38 (ten years ago) link
"Impact craters on the surface of Venus (image reconstructed from radar data)"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Mgn_p39146.png/758px-Mgn_p39146.png
― marcos, Monday, 31 March 2014 16:41 (ten years ago) link
"Maat Mons is a massive shield volcano. It is the second-highest mountain, and the highest volcano, on the planet Venus. It rises 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) above the mean planetary radius at 0.5°N 194.6°E, and nearly 5 km above the surrounding plains.[2] It is named after the Egyptian goddess of truth and justice, Ma'at."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maat_Mons_on_Venus.jpg
― marcos, Monday, 31 March 2014 16:43 (ten years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Maat_Mons_on_Venus.jpg
― marcos, Monday, 31 March 2014 16:44 (ten years ago) link
Actual images from the surface of Venus via Venera 13.
http://www.space.com/images/i/000/023/793/original/venera13-venus.jpg
― Jeff, Monday, 31 March 2014 16:46 (ten years ago) link
These are extrasolar planets but in my astronomy publishing day job one of my favorite things to read/hear about are HOT JUPITERS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Jupiter
― dan m, Monday, 31 March 2014 19:04 (ten years ago) link
band name
― waterbabies (waterface), Monday, 31 March 2014 19:12 (ten years ago) link
"Falling Off the Grid" iirc
― Eric H., Monday, 31 March 2014 19:39 (ten years ago) link
This read makes me think of my Dad's oft-repeated mantra "I don't need to go overseas on holiday, there's enough here in Britain". Intergalactic travel - who needs it? So much to see right here at home. (Types "Ganymede" into airbnb...)
― Michael Jones, Monday, 31 March 2014 21:15 (ten years ago) link
thread, not read
― Michael Jones, Monday, 31 March 2014 21:16 (ten years ago) link
Venus from Venera 13 after the camera lens distortion is corrected.
http://lightsinthedark.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/c_venera_perspective.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 31 March 2014 21:45 (ten years ago) link
While looking at that photo, remember that Venus's surface temp is consistently 875/f. Ouch.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 31 March 2014 21:50 (ten years ago) link
Any planet with "Helium Neon rain" should win this
― Drop soap, not bombs (Ste), Monday, 31 March 2014 21:54 (ten years ago) link
Sanpaku otm. Also, there may be life in those Europan oceans
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Monday, 31 March 2014 23:42 (ten years ago) link
As a huge Kim Stanley Robinson fan I feel a lot of affection for Mars.
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Tuesday, 1 April 2014 16:14 (ten years ago) link
Mars can't compete with some of the other planets Wow! Fuck!! Ahhh!!! factors but it has a ghostly quality. It might have looked like a smaller earth when it was a warmer planet still holding water. That old Cosmos episode "Blues For a Red Planet" is a classic, even with the real footage from the rovers DeGrasse Tyson's version won't better it.
― xelab, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 17:30 (ten years ago) link
Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition (Venus is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth). However, it has also been shown to be very different from Earth in other respects. It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, consisting of more than 96% carbon dioxide which absorbs over 95% of the incoming solar radiation. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of Earth's. With a mean surface temperature of 735 K (462 °C; 863 °F), Venus has the hottest surface of any planet in the Solar System except for the surface of the solid core of Uranus. It has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features, nor does it seem to have any organic life to absorb it in biomass. Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light. Venus may have possessed oceans in the past,[13][14] but these would have vaporized as the temperature rose.[15] The water has most probably photodissociated, and, because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field, the free hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by the solar wind.[16] Venus's surface is a dry desertscape interspersed with slab-like rocks and periodically refreshed by volcanism.from wikipedia
― marcos, Monday, March 31, 2014 4:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
man reading that description of venus, someone please tell me there's some rad preachy scifi story about how venus, sister planet of earth, used to be populated by men long dead as the follies of their global warming by way of releasing ever more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere without a care in the world made their planet hotter and hotter, leading to total destruction.
― Jibe, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 17:54 (ten years ago) link
I think Sanpaku mentioned on the global warming thread that even we tried to bioengineer extreme runaway global warming on earth by simultaneously burning all the fossil fuels, releasing all the trapped methane hydrates etc earth would still be a teensy fraction as hot as infernal hothouse Venus.
― xelab, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 18:15 (ten years ago) link
A couple billions of years ago, as the Sun grew more luminous in its evolution through the main sequence, Venus was shrouded in a sweltering atmosphere of water vapor from evaporating oceans. Photodissociation of the water molecules in the upper atmosphere liberated hydrogen, occassionally with enough energy for escape velocity, over geological time leaving behind oxygen and its appetite for carbon. At hot enough temperatures, atmospheric carbon dioxide is more stable than crustal carbonates, so eventually nearly all of Venus's carbon became atmospheric. Earth has similar amounts of carbon, but thanks to our prevailing temperatures and the burial of diatom skeletons, algal blooms and peat, most is sequestered deep underground.
The sun continues to grow brighter, so the Earth has under a billion years left before its oceans evaporate and it experences a similar runaway greenhouse. Underground extremophile bacteria have perhaps 1.5 billion years left. In general, over the lifespan of any star the currently habitable zone moves outward. Earthlings were just lucky their goldilocks planet orbited a star large enough for a wide habitable zone, small enough for a long period for biological evolution, and their planet accreted near the outer edge of the habitable zone.
― Congratulations! And my condolences. (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 1 April 2014 21:55 (ten years ago) link
Such a cool image:
http://martianchronicles.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/jupiter-aurora.jpg
The billion watt lightshow of Jupiter's aurora borealis, as seen in UV by Hubble. The Galilean moons leave footprints in the magnetic Birkeland currents, clearly visible has bright spots.
― Congratulations! And my condolences. (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 1 April 2014 22:06 (ten years ago) link