I'm not taking into account the moons of the planets in this poll. Planets on their merits only.
― Jeff, Sunday, 30 March 2014 20:59 (ten years ago) link
xp Yeah, you take that back!
― Eric H., Sunday, 30 March 2014 21:37 (ten years ago) link
NeptuneSaturnJupiterVenusMarsMercuryUranusPluto
― Eric H., Sunday, 30 March 2014 21:38 (ten years ago) link
Triton sounds amazing tbh, forgive my ignorance. I just have a thing for Titan after reading something about how it has flowing water at - 76 celsius and something called Ice 6 which reminds me of Kurt V. Talking of which it is amusing how in The Sirens of Titan there is a pill you can swallow which allows you not to get melted by the 1000 degrees heat of Venus!
― xelab, Sunday, 30 March 2014 22:18 (ten years ago) link
Titan and Triton: Oh! I Always Get Those Two Mixed Up!
― Bristol Stomper's Breakout (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 30 March 2014 22:24 (ten years ago) link
wonder where earth would place in this poll? it's a pretty fucking cool planet ya gotta admit.
― I don't care if you're Black Sabbath, James White, or Deep Purple (Karl Malone), Sunday, 30 March 2014 22:25 (ten years ago) link
It doesn't look much but it has a great atmosphere.
http://www.fortheloveofgeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/mars_to_earth-browse.jpg
― xelab, Sunday, 30 March 2014 22:29 (ten years ago) link
That's earth viewed from Mars.
― xelab, Sunday, 30 March 2014 22:30 (ten years ago) link
What do people think of the idea that the current orbits of the planets are not fixed + have fluctuated wildly at times? Solar drift could be an explanation for the "snowball earth" period. I found this quite a fascinating, scary read, i am not science enough to know if it is bs. http://nautil.us/issue/8/home/the-madness-of-the-planets
― xelab, Sunday, 30 March 2014 22:39 (ten years ago) link
Wow, that's a cool article. I'm not science enough either, but I love the idea that actually Jupiter was basically this proto-planet mediator that roamed around and rearranged everything, basically accounting for the forms and arrangements of all the planets. Feeling better and better about voting for it.
― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 30 March 2014 23:07 (ten years ago) link
good ole jupes
― mattresslessness, Sunday, 30 March 2014 23:08 (ten years ago) link
also, this could be an awesome basis for a sci-fi story:
In one version of the theory, developed by Morbidelli’s colleague David Nesvorny at the Southwest Research Institute, our solar system originally had a fifth giant planet that got ejected entirely during this commotion; if so, it is currently wandering alone among the stars.
― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 30 March 2014 23:10 (ten years ago) link
Truly the andy gibb of planets
― fauxpas cola (darraghmac), Sunday, 30 March 2014 23:36 (ten years ago) link
Planets Having Flown
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 31 March 2014 01:38 (ten years ago) link
gr8 article
can't decide in this poll
― imago, Monday, 31 March 2014 02:18 (ten years ago) link
We have seen it snow on Mars. So until another planet has snow, it's got my vote.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 31 March 2014 04:03 (ten years ago) link
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/388625main_Jupiter_Approach.gif
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Monday, 31 March 2014 04:19 (ten years ago) link
It's gonna be weird when we ignite that as a second sun in the year 3057.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 31 March 2014 04:21 (ten years ago) link
Nothing like drunkenly googling molecular clouds and red giant branch phases on a Sunday night after bedtime.
― Eric H., Monday, 31 March 2014 04:30 (ten years ago) link
seriously is anything weirder or more horrifying than Jupiter
― Clay, Monday, 31 March 2014 04:34 (ten years ago) link
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