Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Excellent!

re: Titan blue skies

Huygens will be doing imaging starting pretty high up. If I understood the article I read correctly (one of the technical papers on the Huygens site, I think), there is quite a bit of atmosphere above the main cloud deck, and perhaps even above the haze if I recall. It looked like getting images of a blue sky over a cloud-shrouded Titan was a real possibility.

One thing worth noting is that Titan's atmosphere extends MUCH farther out than Earth's. The surface pressure on Titan is expected to be something like two or three atmospheres so it starts out with a higher density, and given Titan's much lower gravity, that means a much lower density gradient than Earth (much greater scale height). The net result is that entry begins at over 1000km, and the parachute deploys at over 150km!

Unfortunately, quickly glancing at the ESA website I don't see the document I looked at a month or two ago; I don't recall exactly how I found it.

As for Venus, that's a good point! I thought that some of the clouds extended up to pretty low density levels, so are you sure there'd be enough atmopshere to get a good blue above all the clouds? Haze issues from sulfate aerosols up there?

How is this for a picture suggestion:

From high over the Venusian cloud deck, a nice wide angle shot towards the eastern horizon at sunset, at a time when the Earth is in opposition, a brilliant pale blue star rising up through the fading twilight.

(yes, I know Venus barely rotates, and does so retrograde, but given the high altitude winds a ballon probe would still see sunsets and sunrises every few days)

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