Most Interesting/Most Boring Objects in the Solar Options

[tasp]

Here's one for the probably most surprisingly least boring object:

Ariel


{In light of the intersting surprises on the Saturnian flock, I suspect Ariel to be a good candidate for most interesting Uranian satellite}

[Betelgeuze]

My list:

1) Ceres
2) Europa
3) Titan
4) Enceladus
5) Luna
6) Mars
7) Eris
8) Pluto
9) Io
10) Vesta

[GregM]

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[jasedm]

The "20km high Verona Rupes icecliffs " are not vertical, they are talus slopes at the angle of repose. You would skid and bounce down them, not bungee.

Ok, the solar-system's most inviting ski slope......

This does beg therefore, the question of the location of the solar-system's highest vertical (or near-vertical) cliff:

Valles Marineris? 5-7km
Herschel on Mimas?


At less than a mile, the Earth's highest cliff is not hard to beat.

[Jeff7]

The moons of the outer planets fascinate me the most. Granted most of them are uninterested hunks of rock, but there is such diversity too! I guess Europa is the most intriguing with its hypothesized underground liquid water ocean kept war by tidal forces feeding steam vents.

Agreed. I was all hopeful about the Prometheus project allowing for powerful orbiters to be put around Jupiter, but of course that was canceled.

Europa's got a young, active surface, and I find those colored cracks especially interesting. (Wouldn't it be incredible if the coloration was from plant-life, killed off by sudden exposure to space?) Whatever the coloration is, it's something welling up from below the icy crust. An orbiter could give more data about Europa, and maybe it could find fresh cracks, where an lander could gain easy access to new material from below the surface. But that's likely a long time away. Too darn much radiation for most of our electronics, too.

[rogelio]

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.

[Gladstoner]

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[tasp]

{work with me here}

Rhea's 'boringness' is actually very interesting.

Really.


Same size as Iapetus, in the same part of the Solar System as Iapetus, and orbits the same planet as Iapetus.

Yet it is totally boring.


Why ??


It's actually almost as interesting as Iapetus.

[marsbug]

I have at least one paper suggesting Rhea may be much more interesting on the inside!

Attached File(s)

 SUBSURFACEOCEANS.pdf ( 532.97K ) Number of downloads: 1893

 

[jasedm]

Poor old Rhea (old being the operative word) - Nobody loves saturation cratering on an iceball.
Compared to the glamour moons orbiting either side, she does look like the one to avoid at the party....
I contend though, that in 60 years time or so, when the solar system out as far as Pluto holds no particular surprises for us, most of the asteroids, and a fair few moons will fall well short of Rhea in terms of interesting geology.
Every gas or ice giant seems to have a damp squib satellite - Callisto at Jupiter, Umbriel at Uranus and Proteus at Neptune - at least Rhea has some wispy streaks analogous to Dione's....
Here's hoping for a momentous discovery on Rhea following the extended mission very close pass (not holding my breath though.....)

[tasp]

Well . . .

An 'active' Ariel might be what has stained our little darkling, Umbriel. Or perhaps it has 'self darkened' from some internal process.

Not to sure we should be considering Umbriel 'dull' yet.

A 'fresh' crater, Wunda, punching through an outer layer of 'crud' could be vera, vera intresting.

[jasedm]

Agreed.
I think it almost certain that Ariel has been active in recent geologic epochs judging by the surface contortions, and relative lack of impact architecture. However, I can't envisage any process which could work against the gravitational gradient to darken Umbriel.
The evidence in the outer solar system seems to point to bright materials/features below the crusts of these bodies, and that any dark material seems to be exogenous in nature (c.f. Iapetus, Dione, Rhea Phoebe etc)
With Enceladus in mind, my feeling is that high albedo = recent, and low albedo = ancient as a general rule. Consequently, save a few projectiles punching through the crust, Umbriel is as old as the hills.
I agree wholeheartedly though, that no solar system body could be considered 'dull' per se.

[JRehling]

I think Rhea's boringness is a psychological artifact. It has everything that Tethys and Dione do, just paler and less exaggerated. It comes down to the opinion of whether a taller cliff is more interesting than a shorter cliff made by the same forces.

[jasedm]

Not too sure we should be considering Umbriel 'dull' yet.

Having mused on this for a while, and perused some pictures, I'm prepared to admit I may have been a bit hasty in dismissing Umbriel out of hand.
Wunda does indeed appear impact-related, but the crater nearer the pole (towards the centre of the image) has a central peak dusted with frost which surely is aeolian - some of the processes here are perhaps analogous to Iapetan geology. In any case, Umbriel becomes infinitely more interesting than your average 30km asteroidal rock.

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[Superstring]

Bumping this thread in light of recent exploration!

Here's my list -- I’m biased toward worlds that are active, have complex geology, and have striking visual features.

1. Earth (oceans, storms, active volcanism, mountain ranges, tectonics, biodiversity, possibly intelligent life)
2. Io (hundreds of active volcanoes across surface with sulfuric eruptions hundreds of km high, snow, volcanic terrain, mountains)
3. Titan (chemically complex atmosphere, methane precipitation, storms, seas, rivers, dunes)
4. Enceladus (small moon with water eruptions hundreds of km high, powers E-ring, biological potential)
5. Venus (scorching and high-pressure atmosphere, sulfuric acid virga, metallic "snowcapped" mountains, volcanic terrain)
6. Pluto (water mountains, nitrogen glaciers, albedo variation, binary dwarf planet)
7. Triton (solar-powered nitrogen plumes 8 km high, cryovolcanic terrain)
8. Europa (freshly cracked global surface, biological potential)
9. Mars (inert volcanoes, dust storms, carbon dioxide activity in polar cap)
10. Iapetus (yin-yang albedo variation, ancient equatorial ridge)

Honorable mentions: Miranda, Jupiter, Saturn, and 67P (on behalf of all comets)