Most Interesting/Most Boring Objects in the Solar |
Most Interesting/Most Boring Objects in the Solar |
Jun 7 2007, 07:07 AM
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SewingMachine Group: Members Posts: 316 Joined: 27-September 05 From: Seattle Member No.: 510 |
Yes, it's time to Rock the Inner Geek and proclaim your love for what you consider to be what's hot and what's...well, boring in terms of planetary excitement. Criteria may include dynamicism, color, scale, grandeur, crater-counting wrist torture, budgetary reality, and whatever else you might consider relevant. I'll open with my own picks, without giving any particular reasons. (Earth can count if you like)
In descending order... Most Interesting: 1.) Io 2.) Titan 3.) Europa 4.) Enceladus 5.) Mars 6.) Triton 7.) Venus 8.) Pluto 9.) Dione 10. Iapetus Least Interesting: 1.) Rhea 2.) Luna 3.) Mercury 4.) Oberon 5.) Mimas 6.) Tethys 7.) Callisto 8.) Ganymede 9.) Earth 10.) New Jersey -------------------- ...if you don't like my melody, i'll sing it in a major key, i'll sing it very happily. heavens! everybody's all aboard? let's take it back to that minor chord...
Exploitcorporations on Flickr (in progress) : https://www.flickr.com/photos/135024395@N07/ |
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Nov 12 2007, 08:36 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 59 Joined: 25-December 05 From: Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA Member No.: 619 |
My two main criteria for “most interesting/boring”: A balance of spectacular scenery (including active processes such as geyser, volcanoes and lakes) along with positive prospects for life.
Most interesting: 1. Mars – C’mon now, it’s not even close here - The most earthlike place; diverse topography with views to distant mountains dozens of km away (my prejudices as a “desert rat” who loves Death Valley and the Atacama Desert may be coloring my opinion here), lots of water near the surface, active weather with cool dust devils, and some prospects for present-day life or at least fossils of past life. 2. Europa – A huge ocean lying just a few km down makes life more likely here than anywhere else extra Terra. Downside: Fairly boring surface (and you’d be fried in minutes by radiation). 3. Titan – Exotic hydrocarbon rivers and oceans – What do these look like standing on their banks and shores? Downside: Small prospects for life. 4. Io – Most spectacular volcanic landscape in the solar system. 5. Enceladus and Triton (tie) – Geysers must be great fun to watch from a few km away. We don’t know yet where Pluto, Ceres, etc. will fall out – Perhaps in the Enceladus/Triton class. Most boring: 1. Luna – What a shame earth’s moon isn’t more interesting; had it been so, a much greater impetus would’ve been given to space exploration in the last century or so, and the century or so to follow. Upside: Possible ice at the poles. 2. Mercury – Ditto. Same upside as the moon. 3. Callisto – Jupiter’s Luna surrogate. 4. Rhea – Saturn’s Luna. 5. Venus – For all we know it might’ve been a garden at one time, but the global resurfacing event 100 MYBP and views from Soviet Venera landers show a grim planetscape that most resembles the Kau Desert of Hawai’i. |
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