Starship Asterisk*

• A wheezing old geyser choking on its own crud?

heehaw wrote:
When I was born 77 years ago we knew so little about any solar system denizen. We thought Mercury's rotation period was the same as its orbital period. I remember heartbreak when I read in the Toronto Globe and Mail that radio astronomers had measured below the clouds of Venus and instead of the oceans, continents, and maybe dinosaurs we had all hoped for ...

• What could go wrong

heehaw wrote:
And Mars turned out to have so little water, and so much radiation, that I don't believe that it can ever be a new home for us.

• What could go wrong

neufer wrote:.

• A wheezing old geyser choking on its own crud?

heehaw wrote:... There will surely never ever be a manned visit to Venus! And Mars turned out to have so little water, and so much radiation, that I don't believe that it can ever be a new home for us. And the stars are still so very, very, far away ...

MarkBour wrote:

heehaw wrote:
... There will surely never ever be a manned visit to Venus! And Mars turned out to have so little water, and so much radiation, that I don't believe that it can ever be a new home for us. And the stars are still so very, very, far away ...

"Never ever?" I have hope! Or at least, if we never set foot on Venus, we still might learn to inhabit its atmosphere.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
-- Lao Tsu

• One need only take "a single step" outside in Beijing today
  to experience a simulated trip to Venus's atmosphere:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus wrote:
<<Venusian clouds are thick and are composed mainly (75-96%) of sulfuric acid droplets. Venus's sulfuric acid rain never reaches the ground, but is evaporated by the heat before reaching the surface in a phenomenon known as virga. The sulfuric acid droplets can be highly electrically charged, and so they offer the potential for lightning. Venus' small induced magnetosphere provides negligible protection to the atmosphere against cosmic radiation. This radiation may result in cloud-to-cloud lightning discharges. Analysis of data from the Venera, Pioneer, and Magellan missions has found the chemicals hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) together in the upper atmosphere, as well as carbonyl sulfide (OCS). In addition, one of the early Venera probes detected large amounts of toxic chlorine just below the Venusian cloud deck.>>

melrod wrote:Pictures like this give me a sense of relatable place compared to the grandeur of a galaxy or wondrous enormity of a nebula.

heehaw wrote:Wow. Seeing the surface of a comet! Pretty jet of tail-stuff! When I was born 77 years ago we knew so little about any solar system denizen. We thought Mercury's rotation period was the same as its orbital period. I remember heartbreak when I read in the Toronto Globe and Mail that radio astronomers had measured below the clouds of Venus and instead of the oceans, continents, and maybe dinosaurs we had all hoped for ... extremely high temperatures revealing Venus to be a fine candidate to be hell. What a disappointment! There will surely never ever be a manned visit to Venus! And Mars turned out to have so little water, and so much radiation, that I don't believe that it can ever be a new home for us. And the stars are still so very, very, far away....

Buddy wrote:I remember reading somewhere that humans will never, ever venture to the stars, not now or in the next billion years. The reason, genetic sciences are advancing by leaps and bounds. The current state of GMO is just the tip of the iceberg. What will go to the stars might originate from humans, but will be so adapted to space travel as to be not in the same genus as us. Like the differences among the great apes.

neufer wrote:.

• A wheezing old geyser choking on its own crud?

JohnD wrote:Thanks for all the links as well, in particular the "mundane terrain" one that shows the precise area before the plume erupted.
Fascinating!
John

Bird_Man wrote:
Fascinating image - much different than I expected the surface of a comet to look like.
I wonder if the circular structures to the left of the active vent are the sites of previous venting.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/vent wrote:
vent (v.) late 14c., "emit from a confined space," probably a shortening of aventer "expose oneself to the air" (c. 1300), from Old French eventer "let out, expose to air," from Vulgar Latin *exventare, from Latin ex "out" + ventus "wind" (see wind (n.1)). Sense of "express freely" first recorded 1590s. Sense of "divulge, publish" (1590s) is behind phrase vent one's spleen.

vent (n.) c. 1400, "anus," from Old French vent from verb eventer (see vent (v.)) and in part from Middle English aventer, from the French verb. Perhaps also merged with or influenced by Middle English fent "opening or slit in a the front of a garment (usually held closed with a brooch)," c. 1400, from Old French fente, from Latin findere "to split". Meaning "outlet for water," also "air hole, breathing hole" is from mid-15c.