A Rendering (Motion Edit) Of A Thunderstorm, Based On A Single Photograph Of A Cumulonimbus Cloud Lit

Venus has LOCKED tectonic plates??? How does that work? How are they even counted as individual plates if it’s the tectonic equivalent of Pangea?

it's not so much that Venus's tectonic plates are locked, it's more that it never had them in the first place!

which is a major surprise, actually, because Venus is the most Earth-like of the other planets in our solar system.

surprise?

"what," you may say, flailing in consternation, "about Mars?? why are we trying to colonize Mars if Venus is more Earth-like???"

and it's a good question! Venus IS technically more Earth-like in the sense that it's right next door, is a solid 80% the size of Earth, and has both a working atmosphere and a liquid mantle composed of molten rock, BUT- it's also important to note that Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system and it rains boiling sulfuric acid at almost all times! our first probes to the damn place actually melted. MELTED.

this is what Hell looks like.

BUT ANYWAY so Venus is the planet in our solar system that's the MOST physically similar to Earth, our dear mother who does not rain boiling sulfuric acid on our heads hardly at all ever, so it's kind of a shock that its geology is COMPLETELY FUCKING DIFFERENT.

see, Earth's outer crust is broken up into a series of mind-breakingly-massive tectonic plates that sort of skid around on top of the liquid mantle, slowly drifting in different directions driven by Earth's rotation and bonking into each other randomly like a 300-million-year-long Pinball tournament!

but on Venus, the entire outer crust is a single solid piece sitting on top of the liquid mantle, like the peel of an orange.

though not as good for you. because of the whole Boiling Acid thing.

and contrary to what you might think, this actually makes Venus a VERY VIOLENT place! the outer crust twists and deforms slightly as the liquid mantle spins under it, like a water balloon being flung repeatedly against a wall by a small child, but all of that force can't really be dispersed because the crust is a single solid piece of rigid rock!

so what happens is that this force builds and builds and BUILDS until Venus can't take the strain anymore and has a very volcanic tantrum about it.

unlike the rest of the solar system, the surface of Venus is made of relatively new and entirely volcanic rock- because the entire planet is basically having a planet-wide eruption event at all times, with multiple huge volcanos just spewing gigantic amounts of liquid rock everywhere like it's their damn job, to the point where Venus is just getting resurfaced like a McDonalds parking lot every epoch or so.

aren't you glad Earth doesn't do this? I am SO glad Earth doesn't do this.

(much, anyway)

uh anyway that's why we're trying to colonize Mars instead, and why plate tectonics are a GOOD thing! thanks for coming to my TED talk bye

why are star wars planets more boring than earth and our solar system like sure we’ve seen desert, snow, diff types of forest, beach, lava, rain, but like… 

rainbow mountains (peru)

red soil (canada/PEI)

rings (saturn’s if they were on earth) 

bioluminescent waves

northern lights (canada)

salt flats (bolivia, where they filmed crait but did NOTHING COOL WITH IT except red dust?? like??? come ON)

and cool fauna like the touch me not or like, you know, the venus flytrap.. and don’t get me started on BUGS like… we have bugs cooler than sw aliens

BASICALLY like???? come on star wars you had one (1) job where are the cool alien species

The faint rings of Uranus, shot in 1986, are made of countless fragments of water ice containing radiation-altered organic material.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures

tomorrow's schedule

7:30 am-8 am: wake up

8-8:30 am: drink a bowl of water with a spoon like soup

8:30 am - 4:00 pm: bring bronze age petroglyphs to life with my powers

4:00 pm-: haven't figured out this part yet

Do Earth-Sized Planets Around Other Stars Have Atmospheres? James Webb Will Find Out!

“Even so, because of its ability to measure light to high sensitivity far into the infrared, there’s a remarkable hope for determining whether these worlds have atmosphere regardless of any other measurements. As planets orbit their star, we see different phases: a full phase when it’s on the far side of the star; a new phase when it’s on the near side, and everything in between. Based on the temperature of the world at night, we’ll receive different amounts of infrared light from the "dark” side that faces away from the Sun. Even without a transit, James Webb should be able to measure this.“

The overwhelming majority of Earth-sized, potentially habitable planets that Kepler found are in orbit around red dwarf stars. In many ways, this is great: red dwarf stars are stable, temperature-wise, for longer than our Sun. Their planets are easier to detect, and they will be the first Earth-sized ones we can measure the atmospheres of directly. But even if we can’t make those measurements with James Webb, we’ll be able to learn whether they have atmospheres or not via a different method: by measuring the infrared radiation coming from the planets themselves in various phases. Just as we can measure the presence of Venus’ atmosphere from the hot, infrared radiation emanating from it even on the night side, we can make those same measurements with James Webb of other Solar Systems. By time the early 2020s roll around, we’ll have our first answers to this longstanding debate.

Many scientists think that Earth-sized planets around M-class stars will have no atmospheres left; others think there’s a chance they survive. Here’s how James Webb will find out!

ｗｈａｔ ａｍ Ｉ