Paul M. Sutter Is an astrophysicist Suni Stony Brook and Flatiron Institute, Host Ask a spaceman And Space radio, And the author How to die in space.
We Earthlings think we’re oh-so-special. The abundance of oxygen in our atmosphere and the presence of liquid water on the surface of our planet also make our “pale blue dot” stand out against the other planets in the solar system – a unique and fragile home for life.
But for all the biological activities on our homeworld, we are not the only interesting planet orbiting the sun. There are some other similar wonders in the solar system. Only one sample is provided here.
Who asked for Venus?
In all the rocky world of the solar system, Venus takes the cake – and then something more. Its atmosphere is suffocating, toxicly thick. On the surface, air is about a hundred times less than on Earth, creating a “sea surface” on Venus, which creates a pressure of 3,000 feet (90,000 meters) underwater.
Venus trap heat uninterrupted mile above mile in the air, escaping into full bloom greenhouse effect. It warms the surface so much that the planet next to Mercury warms up even though it is sitting closer to the sun.
Want to melt a little lead? Sit around the surface of Venus, and wait. The atmosphere will do the rest.
Related: Living on Venus: Why It Would Be Difficult (Infographic)
To make these hellish nightmares of the planet worse (why not), Venus’s atmosphere contains significant amounts of sulfuric acid. The acid forms clouds in the upper atmosphere, and the pea-soup fog fog before it encloses below to produce anisle rain.
But that acid rain doesn’t even bring it to the surface: it evaporates quickly before temperature and pressure touch the ground.
Is Venus nasty? You bet. Is it special? Well, it’s definitely kind of.
Saturn’s love of geometry
Therefore, Saturn has a hexagon at its north pole. No kidding, we have pictures of her and everything. A real, legitimate geometric shape, shining on us like some kind of cosmic joke.
But that’s no joke, just physics. Saturn’s north pole is dominated by giant vortex-like storms, such as winds whipping around the planet for hundreds of miles around the clock. But when you move farther south, the wind will go down at a more unstable speed.
At a certain latitude, that wind becomes unstable, as fast moving winds are rubbed against their slow moving cousins. Storm speeds create small, semi-permanent hurricanes wrapped like a wreath around the neck of Saturn’s northern hemisphere. These hurricanes shape and sculpt the jet flow above them, forcing the wind to advance the six-sided view.
So, if you are a fan of geometry, there is no planet better than Saturn. No one else in our solar system plays such a stormy game arrangement, which makes the tangled world a complete barrier.
A surprise for Titan
The hexagon is not the only surprise to see in a solar system. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, Gad, is filled with impenetrable fog.
And that fog hides a wonderful secret.
Titan’s atmosphere is very thick, the thickness of any moon in the solar system, and even 50% thicker than Earth’s atmosphere. It is mostly nitrogen (like Earth’s air) but also contains a fair bit of methane and ethane. Which gives the Titan its characteristic yellow, ugly color. And right from the surface, methane binding with hydrogen, sprinkling a few clouds in the fog.
And sometimes it forms methane droplets and falls to the ground, where it pools and stores rivers, streams, lakes and oceans of methane. And if it gets a little toasting, some of that methane evaporates back into the atmosphere, starting the cycle again.
A complete cycle, similar to the water cycle on Earth, but at temperatures below zero to a few hundred degrees. And with methane.
In addition to Earth, Titan is the only world in the Solar System that can boast of fluids on its surface. Methane seas. Methane rain. Landscape dominated by liquid hydrocarbons. Life requires water for what we know, but it is not impossible to build some kind of life in this methane oasis on the edge of the solar system.
And any place that can organize potential life is very special.
“AAS! 126: Learn more by listening to the episode: What’s the Wildest Weather in the Solar System?” Available at http://www.askaspaceman.com on iTunes and the web, say on the Spaceman podcast. Thank you Saul c. For questions leading up to this piece! Ask your own questions on Twitter using the #Ask AS spaceman or by following the poll on Twitter @Poulam AttTaster and Facebook / Palm AttTaster.
