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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Jun 10 2007, 08:54 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1870 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174 |
"Ironically, Rhea's about the only body that I can think of that actually looks like what we expected a pre-Voyager outer planet icy moon to look like...what does this fact tell us about what we really know and understand?"
1.) Ice balls (ice and mud, really) can do interesting things if they have energy. Tidal energy was predicted for Io pre-Voyager, but estimates seem to repeatedly be off. The orbital dynamics involved are nonlinear and may be chaotic 2.) It seems likely that colder ice-balls contain "lubricant".. ammonia or something, that helps keep activity "up" as you go outward from Jupiter to Neptune. 3.) There is an imperfect tendency for outer solar system objects to be more active the more reflective they are.. Europa was identified as an ice-ball pre-voyager, based on spectra and albedo, and assumed to be BORING... but it's a self-renewing-surface ice-ball. 4.) Bigger ice balls may be less interesting.. they may hold heat better, but they're often further out and less likely to get tidal heating.. Callisto.. Rhea, Iapetus (fascinating despite no activity), Oberon. |
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