Most Interesting/Most Boring Objects in the Solar Options

[Exploitcorporati...]

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

[Phil Stooke]

Hi Antdoghalo.

Most of the worlds you say are boring are not really so boring after all. In some cases like Umbriel it's because our images are very poor compared with many other worlds. Better images would probably make it look a lot more interesting, especially the crater with the very bright floor.

In other cases you have just not seen the most interesting stuff. Take Mimas as an example. Here are three links that make it look a lot more interesting:

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/1264...false-colors-1/

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/1492...ater-annotated/

https://www.planetary.org/space-images/closeup-on-herschel

In the last one., be sure to click into the high resolution version. Look at the strange albedo markings on the crater wall.

There's a lot more going on with Mimas than a quick glance suggests. There are linear grooves which hint at a bit of tectonic activity, and this brand new paper:

Rhoden, A.R. and Walker, M.E., 2022. The case for an ocean-bearing Mimas from tidal heating analysis. Icarus, p.114872.

suggests the possibility of an internal ocean, rather unexpectedly.



So I am going to counter you by suggesting (paraphrasing Larry Soderblom) - there's no such thing as a boring object in the solar system.

Phil