Transcript The Planetary Zoo

The
Planetary
Zoo
Mercury
Venus
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/planets.html
Venus
Radar image penetrating through the thick atmosphere
Venus – color coded by elevation
http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/downloads.htm
Venus – computer generated view of surface
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-venus.html
Earth
Moon
Venus and Earth Compared
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/venus_002.htm
Mars
Earth and Mars Compared
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/mars_002.htm
Mars
ccce.51.net/down/ screen/mars.htm
Mars
http://www.mmedia.is/~bjj/3dtest/
Mars
MARS: Southern polar cap during the evening seen from ground level
“Snow" is mostly frozen carbon dioxide frost with small amounts of water ice. Winter temperatures
here can fall as low as - 190º F.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/mars_040.htm
MARS: View from the flank of Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons is one of the highest volcanoes on Mars. In this view we are near the rim of the shield wall, about
three miles above the plains beyond. The summit continues to rise behind us to an altitude of 15 miles (nearly
three times higher than Earth's Mount Everest). Clouds composed of water ice crystals have been observed in this
region during the summer season. Here they blanket a hazy, salmon sky.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/mars_060.htm
Jupiter
Europa
Io
Calisto
Ganymede
Jupiter and its moons
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/planets.html
Io
Europa
Ganymede
Callisto
Jupiter's four largest satellites, compared in size to the Earth and Moon.
Jupiter's hydrogen sea
Miles beneath Jupiter's brown clouds of ammonia, hydrogen and helium lies a mysterious realm where the
weight of the atmosphere above far exceeds the pressures found in Earth's deepest oceans. It is believed
that in this realm, somewhere between Jupiter's cloud tops and the jovian core, the atmosphere gives way
to a planet-wide ocean of liquid hydrogen.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/jupiter_020.htm
Io - a geyser erupts
Io is the most volcanically active body known in the Solar System. Eruptions are so common this moon has
likely resurfaced itself many times. In this image a plume of liquid sulfur dioxide rises more 200 miles above
Io's surface. In the foreground are the remains of old lava flows composed of silicate rocks, sulfur, and sulfur
compounds. Io has a very thin sulfur dioxide atmosphere and a surface temperature of - 225º F.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/jupiter_040.htm
Jupiter as seen from Europa
Europa is Jupiter's fourth largest moon and is slightly smaller than the Earth's Moon. Europa is believed
to be composed of silicate rocks with a layer of water ice covering the entire surface. This image is
inspired by recent discoveries on Europa of regions that look very much like pack-ice on Earth's polar
seas during spring thaws. It may be that beneath Europa's surface ice there is a layer of liquid water,
perhaps as much as 30 miles deep.. If Europa does indeed harbor a liquid water ocean, it would be the
only place in the Solar System besides Earth where liquid water exists in significant quantities. It may
also be the only place in the Solar System where life has evolved outside the Earth.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/jupiter_080.htm
Callisto - a jovian eclipse as seen from Callisto
Looking at Jupiter from Callisto's north pole. The eclipsed Sun is about to emerge from behind
Jupiter's right limb. Callisto is the most distant of Jupiter's four large moons. It is smaller than
Ganymede, but larger than Io and Europa. Like Europa, Callisto may harbor an ocean of liquid
water beneath its crust of ice and rock. Callisto's crust is thought to be about 100 miles thick, so
it is unlikely that this ocean is host to any life forms, if indeed it does exist.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
Ganymede - frost-covered ridges
Highly reflective frost covers a series of ridges, or grooves, running for hundreds of miles and
probably formed when tectonic forces pulled apart Ganymede's icy surface. Similar sets of
faults occur in rift zones on Earth, as in eastern Africa. Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon
and is larger than the planet Mercury. Much of the surface of Ganymede is covered by water
ice and has no known atmosphere.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/jupiter_100.htm
Saturn
Titan
Tethys
Iapetus
http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/hommage-sondes.htm
Cassini at Titan in 2002
http://www.resa.net/nasa/titan.htm
Titan Revealed
It is not known what lies beneath Titan's obscuring haze. but Titan's atmosphere is one-and-a-half times
as dense as the Earth's. Its is roughly 90% nitrogen and 10% other complex molecules such as
methane. The thick haze would make it unlikely that a visitor to Titan's surface could look up and see
Saturn itself.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
Saturn as seen from atop Titan's hydrocarbon haze
Saturn viewed from just above Titan's hydrocarbon haze, 50 miles above Titan's surface and three-quarters of
a million miles away from Saturn itself. This haze is chilled to a frigid minus 330º F. In this image the presence
of gaseous ethane and methane in Titan's upper atmosphere yields a bluish, earthlike sky, albeit darker due to
Titan's great distance from the sun.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
Titan's ethane ocean
Titan is about ten times further from the sun than Earth, leaving it with an average surface temperature of
minus 290º F. If there is any water on Titan it is hard as steel, yet Titan's ocean, if it has one, would probably be
composed of very cold liquid ethane. Beneath this ocean may lie hundreds of feet of frozen acetylene (a
common gaseous component of welder's torches on the Earth).
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/saturn_020.htm
Uranus
Titania
Uranus as seen from Puck
This is how Uranus and its tiny moon Puck might look from a position in orbit around Puck.
Puck in turn orbits Uranus at a height of 37 thousand miles above Uranus' cloud tops,
completing one orbit in about 18 hours. Due to the fact that Puck's orbit is on the same
plane as Uranus' rings, they would appear as little more than a thin line from this vantage
point.
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/uranus_040.htm
Neptune
Triton
Sunrise on Triton
A diminutive sun rises over Triton's hard and glistening landscape of rock, frozen water, carbon dioxide,
nitrogen, and methane. The little warmth that reaches Triton's surface induces a nitrogen and methane
haze, forming a very tenuous atmosphere. It is very cold on Triton with temperatures falling as low as
minus 391º F. While as much as 25% of Triton may be composed of water ice, it is very unlikely that
there is any liquid water, or life, on this world.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/neptune_016.htm
Triton: a five mile high geyser
Triton's low surface gravity and tenuous nitrogen atmosphere allows a volcanic geyser to erupt to an extraordinary
height. Winds high above the surface carry the ejecta dozens of miles away from its source. This view is from an
altitude of several hundred feet above Triton's south pole.
Walter Myers Computer Graphic Vistas
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/neptune_050.htm
Pluto
http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/gallery/image_gallery/solar_system/solar_pluto.html
Winter on Pluto
Pluto is an extremely cold world where frozen nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane may blanket the
surface like snow during most of its 248 year "plutonian" year. These ices have been transformed from
white to a pinkish-brown due to interactions with gamma rays from deep space and the distant Sun. The
average surface temperature on Pluto is - 350º F.
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/pluto_010.htm
Pluto
Pluto is a small world, about 1500 miles in diameter making it smaller than Mercury and
even our Moon. Pluto does have a moon orbiting around it, though the two are quite
close in size.
http://starryskies.com/articles/dln/7-99/pluto.html
Earth, Pluto, Charon, and Earth's Moon compared
http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/pluto_005.htm