12 Atmospheric Phenomena We Would See When Visiting Other Planets

We are all familiar with climatic phenomena such as rain generated by natural processes when water, when evaporated by the sun, falls to the earth due to gravity — or at least we believe so. But on other celestial bodies, weather phenomena are produced in a different way, so they appear to be radically different. If we lived in space, we could dance in the rain, but with diamonds, and be intimidated by hurricanes so big that they would leave our people here dying of embarrassment.

O awesome.club researched how climate phenomena are on different planets, satellites and exoplanets and imagined the different scenarios we would experience if we lived in these places.

Because it is close to the sun, Mercury is a planet that has a very thin atmosphere and, therefore, we would not experience so many climate changes. However, its characteristics prevent it from retaining heat, so the surface temperature is very extreme. In this way, during the day we could feel a heat of up to 427 °C and, at night, shiver under a temperature of −173 °C.

If we could live under Venus’ atmosphere, we would see clouds composed of sulfur dioxide and water vapor generated by surface heat and sunlight. Furthermore, a large percentage of these Venusian clouds are capable of accumulating very thick droplets of sulfuric acid. So we would see how they reflect a large part of sunlight.

But not only could we witness a rain of sulfuric acid, but we would also have to protect ourselves from the strong winds that reach the surface of Venus and that can transport everything from dust to small stones. Not to mention that, in the Venusian atmosphere, the speed of the clouds increases to the point that they can cover the entire planet in four days.

We could envision different seasonal changes, including snowfall, but in this case, snowfall on Mars is made up of carbon dioxide. This element is also present in the polar caps and, in addition, their clouds also have the same particles.

This phenomenon can only be possible when the temperature reaches −125 °C, a value even lower than necessary to freeze water. Also, we could see snow all the time at the north or south pole of the planet, because it can stay on the ground for almost a year after falling from the sky.

If we were on the planet Jupiter, we could catch a glimpse of a shower of helium, thanks to the fact that its atmosphere is composed to some extent of this material. It also contains other components like hydrogen, methane, water vapor and other silicon-based compounds. And in the upper part of the atmosphere we would see frozen ammonia crystals from afar.

Due to the presence of water and ammonia in the atmosphere, we would also see lightning much more powerful than Earth’s. But this can vary according to the region of the planet, delimited by colored bands visible from space.

As on Jupiter, Saturn’s atmosphere is also characterized by storms and hurricanes that reach the surface of the planet. In this case, we could experience from winds reaching 450 m/s to lightning 10,000 times more powerful than Earth’s in different periods of time.

In addition, on Saturn we could witness clouds composed of ammonia crystals and uniform haze, formed by a layer of water clouds covering the entire planet, although this has not been proven. Not to mention that we would need to protect ourselves from powerful hurricanes for several months because, according to data recorded in 2010, a vortex similar to Jupiter’s great red spot appeared that lasted approximately 200 days.

Titan is one of the satellites that revolve around Saturn and has clouds formed by frozen and liquid methane. If we could walk across its surface, we would see a rain of methane similar to the drops of water that fall on Earth.

This phenomenon would occur especially during the mornings in a specific region of the satellite called Xanadu. Keep in mind that Titan takes approximately 16 days to complete one rotation, so the rain would last about three Earth days after dawn and dissipate after 10:30 am local time. But it remains to be seen whether the methane rain occurs only in this specific region or if it is common in other parts of the satellite.

On the giant planets of the solar system, such as Uranus and Neptune, we would see a rain of diamonds, thanks to the methane present in their atmospheres. This material, under the influence of natural conditions, turns into diamond and hydrogen.

Scientists discovered this fact by recreating the “diamond rain”, using a plastic to simulate the compounds formed from methane. After several observations of the phenomenon discovered in the simulations, it is believed that, for thousands of years, diamonds slowly sank into the ice layers of these planets, thus forming a thick layer around the core.

On the planet Uranus we would spend most of our lives sheltered, as it has a minimum temperature of −224 °C, being the coldest planet in the solar system. And although the sky is made of hydrogen and helium, it also has several layers of ice composed of water, methane and ammonia. It is believed that the clouds are distributed in different levels, with water clouds arranged in a lower level and methane clouds in a higher level.

On the planet Neptune, each season can last approximately 40 Earth years, so you would spend much of your life experiencing either a long summer or a long winter. This is due to the inclination of its axis, causing certain regions of the planet to be exposed to the sun’s rays for a long time. Not to mention that we would be dealing with supersonic winds of up to 2,200 km/h.

On the exoplanet HD 189733 b we would see clouds of silicate and water vapor throughout the atmosphere. In addition to suffering from the high temperature, due to the proximity to its star, we would also envision a rain of glass formed by the mixture of carbon dioxide and silicate clouds present in its atmosphere.

Also known as “Hot Jupiter”, the exoplanet OGLE-TR-56b is characterized by being the gas giant to orbit very close to its star. Its atmosphere is formed by clouds of iron atoms and that is why it rains iron in this place. Proximity to their “sun” is believed to promote these rains.

The exoplanet COROT-7b is a rocky planet, whose surface is believed to be composed of oceans of fiery lava that, when evaporated, would form its atmosphere. And once it cools down, its components would fall out in the form of rain. But instead of water, it would be a shower of stones.

How do you imagine living with the different atmospheric phenomena in each place? What types of rain would you like to see one day?