Thande
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That was a different theory, more commonly seen in contemporary science fiction; the tidally locked one was popular in the 1890s in more serious speculation.
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That was a different theory, more commonly seen in contemporary science fiction; the tidally locked one was popular in the 1890s in more serious speculation.
I must admit, I am still quite fond of the steamy jungle idea for the purpose of ASB scenarios.
Actually, Venus's day is longer than its year by a few weeks, and what is really weird is that the planet has a retrograde rotation. As to what caused Venus to spin in the opposite sense compared w/ Earth, astronomers are not sure of the exact cause, but there are several theories being bandied about.
Thande
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Yes, well, it's not quite tidally locked, but it would quite a while for the progression to result in the sun-baked side switching with the other one.
Weinbaum (one of those "WI they'd lived" SF writers) combined both in a 30's story: a tidally locked Venus with contant flows of water from the melting frozen side keeping moist n' soggy a pestilential jungle along the edges of the hot side.
He also had Ridiculously Huge Mountains, a feature suggested by perhaps overly imaginative early astronomers to explain dark spots observed in the Venusian atmosphere. I believe some ways back someone posted some bits from an early astronomy text mentioning them? EdT, was that you?
BTW, very cool, Legolas: although a quick check shows that Michelson and Morley didn't meet until the 1880s OTL: Michelson was only born in 1852, so he'd be a teenager in the late 1860s.
Bruce
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a few Questions, how are the Swiss? whats going in the rest of the world? I mean the Koreas, or Afghanistan, southern Africa ect
Like I said, its day is a tad longer than its year. The Venusian atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid, and about 90 times thicker than Earth's atmosphere resulting in a greenhouse effect from hell, with NO temperture difference between the day and night sides of the planet. The surface temps hover around 900 degrees F. Place an unprotected person on the surface, and he/she will be flash fried, compacted, and corroded almost instantly. I guess we know where we can send Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban once Gitmo closes.
Like I said, its day is a tad longer than its year. The Venusian atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid, and about 90 times thicker than Earth's atmosphere resulting in a greenhouse effect from hell, with NO temperture difference between the day and night sides of the planet. The surface temps hover around 900 degrees F. Place an unprotected person on the surface, and he/she will be flash fried, compacted, and corroded almost instantly. I guess we know where we can send Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban once Gitmo closes.
I like to believe that everything scientists have told us about Mars and Venus have been a lie and that something very Stargate-esque is going on up there.
If that is the case, then that opens up a much easier way to ship off Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, than using space craft to do the job, and probably be alot cheaper.
I'll tell you why it is retrograde. A planetoid within its orbit, a bit smaller than mars, in comparison to that of Mars and Earth, collided with it. slowing down its orbit to a retrograde fashion. the impact however, was not enough, and position at such an angle, that it didnt form a moon, possibly rings, which then fell back to the surface.. The water that was on Venus is still there, located within the atmosphere in the form of vapor.. Send another mars like object towards the planet, at an equal angle to that of the Earth-Luna Impact but in retrograde, and it will have a moon, and bee sped up. then water can be mined off the planet and sent to Venus..
That is just one of several theories being thrown around, but there isn't any proof yet to confirm it, anymore than there is for the other theories. I think you meant to say slowing down its rotation to a retrograde sense, for its orbit around the sun is prograde just like the rest of the planets in the Solar System.
No. Retrograde on its own axis.. increasing its rotation that it eventually is like that of earth, but West to East. Slowing down its revolutionary period would only cause it to fall towards Sol, completely obliterating it, and shortening the lafe of the Sun due to all those Heavy Metals and what not.
I was just confirming what you meant to say, you just had the word 'orbit' where the word 'rotation' should have been. BTW, if Venus would somehow get dropped into the sun, the effect on the life expectancy of the sun would be unaffected, because the mass of the sun is millions of times greater than that of Venus, and the amount of heavy metals contained within Venus itself would be miniscule compared to the total mass of the sun. So to the sun, Venus would be a crumb size snack, that wouldn't appease its hunger at all, if it could experience hunger.
I disagree... the suns life would be affected... if only by a couple hundred to a couple thousand years.
Just like I said, unaffected, because hundreds or even thousands of years is nothing compared to the 10 billion year life expectancy of the sun.I disagree... the suns life would be affected... if only by a couple hundred to a couple thousand years.
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