Extreme Weather Phenomena on Other Planets

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Extreme Weather Phenomena on Other Planets

By Trista - January 22, 2021

3. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, although it is not the closest planet to the sun.

The interior of Venus is made of a metallic iron core that is roughly 2,400 miles wide. Its molten rocky mantle is approximately 1,200 miles thick. Although Venus is not the planet closest to the sun, its dense atmosphere traps heat in a runaway version of the greenhouse effect that warms Earth. As a result, temperatures on Venus reach 880 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more than hot enough to melt lead. Any spacecraft that has landed on the planet only lasted a few hours before being destroyed. Venus’s atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid and only trace amounts of water.

The surface of Venus is arid. Ultraviolet rays from the sun evaporate water quickly, keeping the planet in a prolonged molten state. There is no liquid water on its surface today because the scorching heat created by its ozone-filled atmosphere would cause the water just to boil away. Venus is brighter than any other planet or even any star in the night sky because of its highly reflective clouds and closeness to our planet. However, Venus takes 243 Earth days to rotate on its axis, which is the slowest of any major planets. Unusual stripes in the upper clouds of Venus are referred to as ultraviolet absorbers because they strongly absorb light in the blue and ultraviolet wavelengths. They are soaking up a tremendous amount of energy. Roughly two-thirds of Venus’s surface is covered by flat, smooth plains marred by thousands of volcanoes.

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2. Scientists have found a layered mix of ice and sand that represent the last traces of long-lost polar ice caps on Mars.

Remnants of ancient ice sheets have been found buried a mile beneath Mars’ North Pole. The team found layers of sand and ice that were as much as 90 percent water in some places. If melted, the newly discovered ice would be equal to a global layer of water around Mars that is at least five feet deep, which could be one of the largest water reservoirs on the planet. The layers of ice is a record of past climate on Mars in much the same way that tree rings are a record of past climate on Earth. They suspect the layers formed when ice accumulated at the poles during past ice ages on Mars.

Each time the planet warmed, a remnant of the ice caps became covered by sand, which protected the ice from solar radiation and prevented it from dissipating into the atmosphere. Shockingly, the total volume of water locked up in these buried polar deposits is roughly the same as all the water known to exist in glaciers and buried ice layers at lower latitudes on Mars. Studying this unique weather pattern and record of past polar glaciation could help determine whether Mars was ever habitable. Understanding how much water was available globally versus what is trapped in the poles is vital if you’re going to have liquid water on Mars. There can be all the right conditions for life, but if most of the water is locked up at the poles, it becomes challenging to have suitable amounts of liquid near the equator.

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1. Saturn has a unique weather pattern of psychedelic clouds that are driven by internal heating.

Saturn rotates extremely fast but takes a little over 29 years to make one revolution around the sun. It is hard to determine the number of moons revolving around Saturn because it is difficult to distinguish between tiny moons and the numerous ice chunks composing Saturn’s smaller ringlets. As one of the four gas giants, Saturn’s atmosphere is similar to that of Jupiter’s. The atmosphere is mostly composed of hydrogen with lesser amounts of helium and even smaller methane and ammonia quantities.

Discovered by Voyage in 1981, the cloud pattern at Saturn’s north pole continues to amaze scientists. The lower-altitude hexagon may influence what happens above. Saturn’s cloud levels host the majority of the planet’s weather, including the pre-existing north polar hexagon. Scientists have identified that the points of the hexagon rotate around its center at almost the same rate Saturn rotates on its axis. Besides, a jet stream air current flows eastward at up to 220 miles per hour. Roughly seven years ago, an image of the storm was taken to demonstrate its unusual composition. Nothing like the hexagon has been seen in any other world. It is about 20,000 miles wide and approximately 60 miles down into Saturn’s atmosphere.

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