Venus- if I had to pick a favorite...

[Dominatus]

I personally like Venus the best out of all the planets in the solar system. I could make a pretty strong argument for earth, too, though that might be somewhat biased.

Venus is often referred to as the Earth's sister planet. And it practically is in terms of size and history. It may be a inhospitable furnace today, but once Venus was home to a climate which may have been friendly towards life.

I had watched a program about Venus, and several other planets. In it a space probe was mentioned, one which recently began orbiting the planet. In fly-by missions, as well as the mission this probe was on, small amounts of hydrogen and oxygen were detected escaping the atmosphere. This suggests that liquid water once existed on the surface of the planet, and as things heated up the water evaporated. Over millions of years, the solar wind was able to assault the surface, stripping hydrogen from oxygen and carrying it out into space.

Venus is so similar to earth, and if a magnetic field were present it would have more water in the atmosphere.

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, and it's atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide. Volcanic eruptions may have led to the buildup of carbon dioxide in the planets atmosphere, eventually resulting in a runaway greenhouse effect that set the atmosphere ablaze.

Venus is beautiful at dawn and dusk, which is misleading. In truth, it is the dark twin, the evil, violent sister of planet earth.

Venus also serves as a chilling vision of what our future may look like. The excessive amounts of carbon dioxide in the planets atmosphere led to global temperature rising. This probably forced the water on the surface to evaporate, adding more gasses to the atmosphere. With volcanic eruptions spewing out more and more carbon dioxide, the surface of the planet heated up, and wouldn't cool down. This may be the fate of planet earth if emissions are not reduced, and too much carbon dioxide is expelled into the atmosphere.

Anyways, these are just a few reasons why Venus fascinates me. Space in general fascinates me- The Ice7 that may be beneath the oceans of Europa, Super Earths, the crater on Mercury... It's simply amazing.

[G'th]

Personally the only thing I ever found fascinating about Venus was imagining what its landscape might look like without all the clouds in the way.

But I'm still a fan of Mars myself. It too gives us a glimpse at what may come for our planet, but at the same time gives off this ominous feeling of impending rebirth. I don't know if we'll ever really develop what we'd need to terraform Mars, but somehow I can't imagine that we won't still have people living on it indefinitely sooner or later.

[Transits]

If I had to pick a favourite planet, then it would be Venus. But if I were to pick a favourite celestial body then it would be Oberon. Low gravity, lots of ice (good for colonisation). And also amazing veiws!

[Vaporized Steel]

I think you are very wrong about venus. It's safe to say that every large body in our solar system has (had) water. Or atleast Ice. And most possibly that's true for anywhere else in the universe although that obviously isn't documented.

Even if venus had liquid water hundred millions of years ago (or 1+billion years ago) it would still have a retrograde spin that takes venus longer to spin around compared to orbiting the sun. So you still have one side of the planet cooked while the other half is in cold. It is theorized however in search for extraterrestial earths that this effect would cause high altitude atmospheric recirculation but even then on venus you had to cope with some very hard challenges to survive.

A second problem to venus slow rotation would be the cause for a lack of a strong magnetic field. In venus current state the magnetic field is negligible. And apart from some plants and bacteria other complex lifeforms would not be able to survive or flourish regardless of heat and pressure.

What I'm now about to say is completely theoreticall. But it also lacks the necessary facts so I just point out the following.

Venus is shown to have been extremely vulcanic. And is said to have been the most vulcanic planet in the solar system. The sulpur dioxide is just plain proof of vulcanism in bizarre proportions. Many data on vulcanism on venus was gathered by the Magellan probe. I think that vulcanism is so active on venus and theirfore still is exactly for the reason that it doesn't rotate and usually one side of the planet faces the same tidal directional forces caused by the sun for approximately 117days in a row. Also the planet venus has no tectonic plates. So the internal fabric of Venus it's mantle goes through a completely different process then that of earth. Some of those add ups leads me to conclude that venus is a recipe for vulcanism. And non of those formulas for vulcanism on venus are naturally changed but for ever be the same.

So I think venus was Always vulcanic, still is and will Always be until the sun goes red giant.

So long as evidence regarding this matter lacks I feel strongly hold on to this theory. And sadly that theory more or less predicts that venus is never ever going to get better or ever was unless venus did have a faster axial spin in the past. Some theory arised about a large interplanetary collision with venus in the past. I don't get that theory as that would mean there should be remains of that collision down to mercury and up to the orbit of earh. The spin of a planet initially is more or less dictated by random collision events in the protoplanetary era of the solar system. And most likely the rotation speed of venus is just a random that can occur and turned out badly slow and in a opposite direction.

EDIT: Actually I do in fact Like venus. Because it's so bad and evil and hellish. But that's a entire different view on the meaning of 'Liking"

Edited June 6, 2014 by Vaporized Steel

[cantab]

It's now thought that the rotation of Venus, though slow, would be enough to run a geodynamo, and the lack of one is down to other reasons.

In any case, my favourite planet, and indeed celestial body, is Mars. Mainly because, coming from a geological sciences background, I'm continually astonished at how familiar the images returned from the Mars rovers and orbiters look. Sedimentary bedding like I've seen looking across a valley in Greece, dunes that could be in the Sahara Desert, river channels like I'd find on any browse in Google Earth. Though Venus may be a closer match by size, when it comes to the rocks and landforms on its surface Mars is insanely Earth-like.

[Northstar1989]

Venus also serves as a chilling vision of what our future may look like. The excessive amounts of carbon dioxide in the planets atmosphere led to global temperature rising. This probably forced the water on the surface to evaporate, adding more gasses to the atmosphere. With volcanic eruptions spewing out more and more carbon dioxide, the surface of the planet heated up, and wouldn't cool down. This may be the fate of planet earth if emissions are not reduced, and too much carbon dioxide is expelled into the atmosphere.

That's insanely accurate, and an idea propagated purely by people who don't have the slightest clue of atmospheric or planetary sciences. Earth will NEVER look like Venus.

The first thing I need to remind anyone of, is that when we're talking CO2 emissions on Earth, we're talking emissions from burning coal, oil, natural gas, and peat- all of which are ultimately biogenic sources of carbon. Meaning, they came from decaying plant/animal life being buried, AND ALL OF THAT CARBON WAS ONCE ON THE SURFACE.

Earth was never a steaming cauldron like Venus, however, and never will be due to CO2 emissions. What Earth might become is a swamp planet again- like it was way back before the formation of all that coal and peat (Earth used to have a VERY swampy environment- which was conducive to the burial of all that organic matter under layers of mud and sand...) NOT a volcanic planet or a steaming cauldron like Venus though- there are other atmospheric/oceanic/terrestrial limiting factors on Gloabal Warming that eventually start to kick in once the climate becomes warm enough, that prevent the effect from becoming so extreme or runaway as to change the planet to such an absurd degree...

You must also keep in mind Venus orbits 0.723 AU away from the sun (72.3% the distance of Earth). What that means, in practical terms, is that due to the Inverse Square Law, it actually receives 1.913 times (almost TWICE) the solar energy of Earth. So the same effects of Global Warming, the Greenhouse Effect, and such had the potential to get a LOT more carried away there than they due here on Earth (by the same principle Titan or Europa, for instance, will NEVER be as warm as Mars no matter what chemicals you put in their atmosphere...)

In short, CO2-based Global Warming will NEVER change planet Earth enough to make it incapable of supporting human life...

That being said, I wouldn't want to live on a swamp planet- the temperatures and humidity would be unbearably uncomfortable (think jungle weather up until the polar latitudes), and the mosquitoes and insects would be INSANE!

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 7, 2014 by Northstar1989

[xenomorph555]

I highly doubt Earth would ever become like venus due to human emissions, since there is a large gap between us and the mega volcanoes of venus plus it's closer to the sun, however sun expansion....

[Northstar1989]

It's now thought that the rotation of Venus, though slow, would be enough to run a geodynamo, and the lack of one is down to other reasons.

In any case, my favourite planet, and indeed celestial body, is Mars. Mainly because, coming from a geological sciences background, I'm continually astonished at how familiar the images returned from the Mars rovers and orbiters look. Sedimentary bedding like I've seen looking across a valley in Greece, dunes that could be in the Sahara Desert, river channels like I'd find on any browse in Google Earth. Though Venus may be a closer match by size, when it comes to the rocks and landforms on its surface Mars is insanely Earth-like.

I'm with you on Mars, by the way. Beautiful planet. Fascinating to behold. And I image, some day, the future second-planet of mankind...

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. Somebody really needs to show me how to use this forum's multi-quote feature properly, so I don't have to make multiple posts to quote multiple people...

[cantab]

Actually, it's predicted that in a few billion years Earth will become pretty like Venus today. This, though, has nothing to do with current anthropogenic emissions.

[Northstar1989]

I highly doubt Earth would ever become like venus due to human emissions, since there is a large gap between us and the mega volcanoes of venus plus it's closer to the sun, however sun expansion....

When the sun's a Red Giant, it might ENCOMPASS Earth. But that's another story for another day...

Regards,

Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Actually, it's predicted that in a few billion years Earth will become pretty like Venus today. This, though, has nothing to do with current anthropogenic emissions.

Yeah- that would be due to the aging of the sun though. Nothing to do with human activity.

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. The multi-quote feature, anyone want to show me how to use it?

[xenomorph555]

Actually, it's predicted that in a few billion years Earth will become pretty like Venus today. This, though, has nothing to do with current anthropogenic emissions.

Maybe titan will become the new earth...

[cantab]

Regarding multi-quoting, I've always just opened the "reply with quote" links in new tabs, then copy-pasted the different quotes into one post.

[DJEN]

Maybe titan will become the new earth...

The composition is different, so it's more likely to evaporate away.