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
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, 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
When it comes to this particular solar system, Earth's got everyone else beat with the best porridge.
― pplains, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 22:06 (ten years ago) link
Oops, that should be trillion watt lightshow. About the power consumed by 100 large cities on Earth.
― Congratulations! And my condolences. (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 1 April 2014 22:10 (ten years ago) link
Be sure to consider Holst in your deliberations...
― The Whittrick and Puddock (dowd), Tuesday, 1 April 2014 22:24 (ten years ago) link
They used have a measurement of infinite resistance. When trillions of volts can use the vacuum of space as a conductor between Jupiter + a satellite it renders IR nonsense.
Hey Sanpaku, could you do a brief summary of how you believe Mars became a dead planet? No pressure like, I think you add a lot to these type of threads and love reading your responses.
― xelab, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 22:27 (ten years ago) link
the main theory about mars' current state, in my understanding, is more or less like:
mars is a lot smaller than earth, so as time went by its molten iron core cooled and volcanic activity on the planet stopped. the lack of a hot metallic core led to the death of mars' magnetic field, which meant the dangerous particles blasted out by the sun stripped the planet of its atmosphere. ta da, dead planet.
― Clay, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 23:02 (ten years ago) link
That is also my reading of Mars. I suppose that means our molten core is finite, but just hasn't cooled down yet because the extra mass gives it more time.
― xelab, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 23:12 (ten years ago) link
Mars is the only tectonically inert terrestrial planet, right?
Venus, for being the hottest, I'm so shallow.
― Ned Zeppelin (Leee), Tuesday, 1 April 2014 23:32 (ten years ago) link
Hottest despite being only second nearest the sun.
― Ned Zeppelin (Leee), Tuesday, 1 April 2014 23:35 (ten years ago) link
Saturn. Saturn. Saturn. Years ago when they were seemingly discovering new moons every minute, I was really into the jostling between Saturn and Jupiter and was totally cheering Saturn on. MORE MOONS FOR YOU, SATURN, YOU ROCK.
Jupiter is OK but it's no Saturn. And its rings are poxy.
― oh, boy, .GIF! That's where I'm a Viking! (edwardo), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 00:40 (ten years ago) link
MORE MOONS FOR YOU, SATURN, YOU ROCK GAS BALL.
― Ned Zeppelin (Leee), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 00:45 (ten years ago) link
Saturn has a giant hexagon. Close thread.
http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SaturnHex-RGB-11-28-12-JMajor.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 00:46 (ten years ago) link
Almost turquoise, too.
― Ned Zeppelin (Leee), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 00:53 (ten years ago) link
saturn's hexagon looks like a creepy jello pancake O_O
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 01:28 (ten years ago) link
you'll sing a different tune when we're all being transported to saturn, to escape earth's fire-y doom, in 15 years.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 01:31 (ten years ago) link
i don't care as long as I get to ride on the hula hoop
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 01:34 (ten years ago) link
jupiter's gas giantness and saturn's rings have a lot to recommend them but venus and its atmosphere really do it for me. a place where the air was toxic and unimaginably hot really got into my imagination as a kid.
― goole, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 15:56 (ten years ago) link
damn, this poll sent me back to my childhood when I was super into outer space. reading about all the crazy stuff happening in our own cosmic backyard just blows my mind.
and whoever said it up-thread about this being the hardest poll is otm. been thinking about it for hours and still can't pick a favourite.
― president of the people's republic of antarctica (Arctic Mindbath), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 16:02 (ten years ago) link
voted saturn but now i'm wishing i voted jupiter, it just seems to have a lot more going on
― coops all on coops tbh (crüt), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 16:04 (ten years ago) link
same here xp. i was super into space as a kid but took it as more 'normal' because that's what kids do. now that i'm older i can understand how truly insane it all is that something like jupiter exists, and that we exist
― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 16:05 (ten years ago) link
do people know of science fiction that is good on the 'you can only vacillate between awe and terror' thing? I kind of remember 'No Particular Night or Morning' by Ray Bradbury being a bit like this, but it's been years since I read it.
― soref, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 16:13 (ten years ago) link
― The Whittrick and Puddock (dowd), Tuesday, April 1, 2014 6:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The other day on the local classical station I heard "Mars, the Bringer of War," and was all like THANK YOU FOR SO MANY MOVIE TRAILERS.
― bi-polar uncle (its OK-he's dead) (Phil D.), Wednesday, 2 April 2014 16:27 (ten years ago) link
Dead heat between Neptune and Saturn for me.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 2 April 2014 17:29 (ten years ago) link
Man, this takes me back to my childhood watching the photos on TV as the Voyagers sent them home. I still get a warm glow thinking about those 2 little dudes out there, heading off into interstellar space.
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 3 April 2014 02:01 (ten years ago) link
Auroras on Saturn's south pole: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saturn.Aurora.HST.UV-Vis.jpg
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 3 April 2014 02:02 (ten years ago) link
Team Uranus is afwully quiet ITT imho.
― StanM, Thursday, 3 April 2014 03:48 (ten years ago) link
*farts*
― mattresslessness, Thursday, 3 April 2014 04:06 (ten years ago) link
hey!
― waterbabies (waterface), Thursday, 3 April 2014 13:17 (ten years ago) link
neptune is a little underrated imo, it gets overshadowed by the other gas giants. it's a beautiful planet though. i did a report on it in 5th grade, i drew up a really cool poster and made a styrofoam ball model of it and its moons
― marcos, Thursday, 3 April 2014 13:44 (ten years ago) link
my uncle said that at the time that i "should send it to the president"
― marcos, Thursday, 3 April 2014 13:45 (ten years ago) link
did u
― waterbabies (waterface), Thursday, 3 April 2014 13:47 (ten years ago) link
haha, no
― marcos, Thursday, 3 April 2014 13:47 (ten years ago) link
send it to the president of neptune
― ciderpress, Thursday, 3 April 2014 13:50 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWw4Qjy5-fk
― how's life, Thursday, 3 April 2014 15:41 (ten years ago) link
Every time someone says "Uranus" I can only think of
http://comedycentral.mtvnimages.com/images/shows/Futurama/V_series/ftr_108_smelloscope_v6.jpg
― bi-polar uncle (its OK-he's dead) (Phil D.), Thursday, 3 April 2014 15:46 (ten years ago) link
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/04/03/hidden-ocean-discovered-on-saturns-moon-enceladus/
― Ned Zeppelin (Leee), Friday, 4 April 2014 17:22 (ten years ago) link
^ was just reading about that this morning, idk how anyone can pick a favorite given all the vast differences among just the other 7 planets, let alone including moons
― dan m, Friday, 4 April 2014 18:35 (ten years ago) link
The lunar butt jets are new to me.
PS - Am I using "lunar" correctly? Does it refer to any planetary, non-man-made satellite, or just to the one that orbits Earth?
― Ned Zeppelin (Leee), Friday, 4 April 2014 18:54 (ten years ago) link
ime it exclusively refers to Earth's moon ("Luna")
― dan m, Friday, 4 April 2014 18:55 (ten years ago) link
were there more than 9 planets in our solar system at one point? feel like we destroyed a few, just to watch 'em die.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoG5bhofvMk
― Daniel, Esq 2, Friday, 4 April 2014 21:27 (ten years ago) link
Write-in for Planet X
― robocop ELF (seandalai), Saturday, 5 April 2014 08:24 (ten years ago) link