Uranus’ atmosphere – creative help

[qraal]

Hi GoodUniverse

That's amazing! I am very impressed. The fireball piercing the clouds is poetic license :-)

 

[EnumaElish]

Different yet almost familiar ("cosmic neighborhood") -- enchanting! Without art, science may be possible, but not as meaningful.

 

[GoodUniverse]

Thanks Enumafish,
Yes, familiar indeed... there is a similar look to the atmosphere that would make it seem like home (ie. blue sky, white-ish clouds) but the toxic clouds, ghostly rings, faint sun and extremely cold temperature would surely remind you that there was no place like home.

Incidentally, just a passing thought... with there being so much methane in the clouds, is the planet flammable? strange question I know, but thought I would ask.

 

[EnumaElish]

Enumafish? Is that an Ouranosian species? Regards,
EnumaElish
P. S. Enjoyed your description of the beautiful, suffocating atmosphere.

 

[GoodUniverse]

A thousand pardons EnumaElish... my brain just loves shortcuts.

 

[penguin2474]

OK, well Uranus has a rapidly changing atmosphere with many storms that compare in size to the great red spot on Jupiter. therefore, you have the right idea with the storms, but the clouds would be a much lighter blue because of the presence of water vapor. uranus also has about 27 moons, five of which are relatively large. these moons keep the rings in place. good luck

 

[Sankaku]

Sankaku, Actually the meteor is connected to the rings in a way...

Yes, I understand. Perhaps I expressed myself badly. It is more that the line in the picture looked like another ring at first glance (for me at least). I like what you are trying to do, though - just wanted to give some feedback.

 

[GoodUniverse]

Here is the latest revision. I have enhanced the upper cloud deck to put the viewer more into the scene and help with the depth of the horizon. Enjoy.

[PLAIN]http://www.gooduniverse.ca/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Uranus_v8_web_900px.jpg

Here's a closer view at the detail.

[PLAIN]http://www.gooduniverse.ca/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Uranus_v8_web_detail.jpg

 

[EnumaElish]

What are the "pancake stacks" (excuse my naive description, I am not trying to denigrate your drawing, which I quite enjoy) that are visible in the detail?

 

[GoodUniverse]

It's a good question, EnumaElish... Uranus’ lower atmosphere (troposphere) consists of layered clouds: methane, ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide, and water. They are stacked on top of each other because each chemical composition keeps them to a specific altitude.

I imaged them to looking similar to lenticular clouds on Earth where the ‘pancake stacking’ (nice analogy BTW) would emerge due to the slight convection currents in the planet’s interior... a sort of tumbling energy that would push up an array of lens’ shaped caps across the cloud decks... no doubt about it that it is ‘artistic license’ at its most severe but at least there are some loosely jumbled facts supporting the idea.

Really, very little is known about the interior of Uranian Atmosphere so for now it’s all educated visualization.

Might I digress... Uranus is my least favourite planet, and if it wasn’t for its awkward name, it would probably be the first planet we’d forget about. Frankly, it doesn’t have much going for it, sure it lies on its side but what else does it do? it’s a drearily coloured, featureless ball that is flanked by other gas giants that have much more obvious charisma.

So from an artist’s point of view, Uranus is definitely the last-on-the-list of planets to paint. Which begs the question, why do it? What started out as a casual challenge turned into a mission to alleviate Uranus of its identity crisis... at least from my perspective, but perhaps for others as well... at least enough anyway to have people stop and give it just a smidgeon more consideration. I think it worked.

 

[EnumaElish]

Did you paint other planets, or any other landscapes for that matter? Also, I'm thinking you've got a nifty teaching tool in your fingertips (please don't mind the pun) -- as in, "okay class, today we will visually simulate the atmospheric scenery of Uranus using what we know about the planet, plus some scientific principles."

 

[CronoSpark]

Looks great. If there was some sort of 3D planet exploring simulation that has graphics like what you just drawn, I would totally buy it.

 

[redwood973]

Don't get me wrong, I love these pictures. I could never come close to producing anything like these. But, isn't the sun way to large and overly bright in the images?

Uranus is 19.2 AU's from the sun (rougly 2.8 or 2.9 billion km away); shouldn't the sun be just another dot in the sky among a sea of dots (granted probably the brightest dot, but a dot nonetheless)?

 

[qraal]

Don't get me wrong, I love these pictures. I could never come close to producing anything like these. But, isn't the sun way to large and overly bright in the images?

Uranus is 19.2 AU's from the sun (rougly 2.8 or 2.9 billion km away); shouldn't the sun be just another dot in the sky among a sea of dots (granted probably the brightest dot, but a dot nonetheless)?

The Sun is brighter than all the stars until way out past Pluto. At the orbit of Uranus it's still Magnitude -20, which is much, much brighter than Venus at -4 or the Moon at -12.5 for example.