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Like the interior of the planet, the atmosphere is overwhelmingly hydrogen and helium. And helium is liquid even at 0 temperature unless under pressure, so pres
by jessriedel 1y ago
Like the interior of the planet, the atmosphere is overwhelmingly hydrogen and helium. And helium is liquid even at 0 temperature unless under pressure, so presumably (?) would be liquid on the surface. These materials are mechanically very different than the silcates and metals dominating the Earth’s crust, and I don’t think we even have well measured bulk properties? Not sure what erosion processes would look like.
- anton-c 1y agoThat's wild to think about. My mind is struggling to picture 'liquids on the surface' of Jupiter. No idea what that would look like.
- jessriedel 1y agoI am deeply looking forward to the dragonfly mission to Titan, since we'll finally get high-resolution color images from the surface, which has liquid seas of hydrocarbons like methane and ethane at -290 F. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(Titan_space_probe) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(Titan_space_probe) The single image from the surface by the Huygens probe leaves a lot to be desired. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)#/media/File:Huygens_surface_color.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)#/media/File:Huyge...
- anton-c 1y agoYeah this is gonna be awesome, appreciate the heads up!