Most Interesting/Most Boring Objects in the Solar Options

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

I agree, that's beautiful, but please can we have captions or a key or something? I recognise quite a few of them but not all.

If you need captions, then you're not a true space cadet

[Exploitcorporati...]

Sorry about the captions, ngunn...OWW is correct on the identifications.I'm a real space cadet, but in a totally different way. The toughest one would probably be the second image on the top row of the Tohil Montes on Io. I love that image in particular, part of a five-frame mosaic from I32 in October 2001. I put it above Everest for the echo effect. I was actually working on a key sheet to go with the poster with the place names included (not like the GRS needs an introduction).

VP, I'll tag-team with JJ against you in the deathmatch just on principle. I did like the "California of the solar system" statement, though. It has the ring of truth. On second thought here...JJ, when has Rhea ever hogged the public spotlight?!? Here?

[OWW]

Sorry about the captions, ngunn...OWW is correct on the identifications.

No, I was not. Fourth row, Seventh picture. That's not Earth, It's Titan. And Bottom row, Sixth picture is Venus. Don't be mad, it was late.

I'm a real space cadet, but in a totally different way.

Maybe 'Space Geek' is a better term.

[volcanopele]

The toughest one would probably be the second image on the top row of the Tohil Montes on Io. I love that image in particular, part of a five-frame mosaic from I32 in October 2001.

Come on, if people didn't know that was the peak of Tohil Mons just to the southeast of Radagast Patera, well, then I just can't help them. I did have some difficult telling on some images whether they were of Mars, or a desert on Earth...

[Thu]

Here're my favourite places

1. Titan's seas (imagine the strange waves you'll see)
2. Underground ocean on Europa
3. The Face on Mars, the Inca site, the Dome, the Pyramid... the Cydonia region, Mars
4. The newly found cave on the flank of Arsia Mons, Mars (I wonder what's inside?)
5. Triton
6. Pluto&Charon
7. Iapetus
8. South Pole of the Moon
9. LEO
10. Earth

To me there're no boring places in the SS but I'd rather call them my least preferred places to visit

[J.J.]

VP, I'll tag-team with JJ against you in the deathmatch just on principle. I did like the "California of the solar system" statement, though. It has the ring of truth. On second thought here...JJ, when has Rhea ever hogged the public spotlight?!? Here?

Thanks for the backup; I'll need it.

As for Rhea, I was really grasping at straws. "Better put *something* there! But what...ah, Rhea! One person in a thousand talks about it."

[ngunn]

If you need captions, then you're not a true space cadet

Absolutely! And I'm proud to be a mere part-timer. Not the right stuff at all, thank goodness.

[nprev]

As for Rhea, I was really grasping at straws. "Better put *something* there! But what...ah, Rhea! One person in a thousand talks about it."

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?

[edstrick]

"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.

[David]

Rhea is the moon that looks more like any other moon (in the 1000+km range) than it does like itself... that is, if you wanted an image of a generic "solar system moon" that could not be quickly identified as being an individual moon (the way that an image of Io always looks like Io, or that Ganymede, or Triton, or Earth's Moon, have their own distinctive patterns and appearance) you would likely choose Rhea.

[JRehling]

I can't get into the mindset of what's most interesting given what we NEED to know. My list is what is most interesting based on what we do, plus my speculation. My top 25 -- hash marks after #10.

Funny, because my recent thoughts on Ganymede were that it's an interesting world and all that has the problem of being about the tenth most interesting place in the solar system. After sizing everything up, that was about right.

Earth
Titan
Europa
Mars
Enceladus
Io
Venus
Triton
Jupiter
Sun
- - -
Ganymede
Saturn
Miranda
Pluto
Iapetus
Saturn's rings
Neptune
Dione
Mercury
Moon
Uranus
Tethys
Callisto
Vesta
Amalthea

[mchan]

... and Mars and Europa can fight over the title of California of the Solar System.

In many ways there are two Californias, Northern and Southern. Someone who disdains both is probably just jealous.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

Most interesting:

1. Mars
2. Europa
3. Titan
4. Earth's moon
5. Triton
6. Ceres
7. Pluto
8. Io
9. Phobos
10. Mercury

Least interesting

1. Venus ( quite boring, huh )
2. Uranus ( except the moon Miranda )

[JRehling]

Least interesting

1. Venus ( quite boring, huh )

No way! It's just hard to explore. We might end up finding out that Venus is the second most volcanic body in the solar system, or third if it doesn't beat Earth. There are at least three mysteries regarding its atmosphere, it vomits its innards into a new surface every 700 million years, and we don't know why it has the funny rotation or how it turned out so different from Earth in the first place. And even just taking the geomorphology of today, it's got scads of wrinkly terrains, tessarae and compression, etc.

Venus is way above average! As far as we know so far, it clobbers Mercury.

[hendric]

No way! It's just hard to explore.

Venus is probably one of the easiest planets to explore:

1. No extreme radiation environment
2. Easy to reach
3. Has a nice, think, constant atmosphere. Don't need to worry about altitude, or depth/temp varying
4. Nearly earth gravity.
5. Close enough to the sun for solar power in orbit.
6. Close enough to the Earth for high data rates
7. No Great Galactic Ghoul gobbling up spacecraft.
8. ED (not L obviously) testing could be done in your back yard, more or less.
9. Lots of hours of daylight, something like 60 days?

(Anyone think up 1 more reason? Top Ten lists have to have, um, ten items.

I mean really, what's a little sulfuric acid and 700 K? Just rework your system to work with vacuum tubes and wind up springs and you're good to go.

Seriously though, there is lots of good stuff on Venus exploration at the VEXAG website, and in a blog entry Emily did last year at a VEXAG meeting:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/vexag.html
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000560/

Their Reports and Conference Reports are pretty informative.

I agree with John, Venus is not boring, and has more interesting things to tell us than Mercury. I think there's lots of things worth taking a look at, with short duration landers, or a yo-yo-ing balloon.