Ever wondered if weather exists beyond Earth?
In this episode of Cosmically Curious, Patrick McNameeKing sits down with astronomer Nicole Gugliucci to explore the bizarre reality of extraterrestrial weather — from scorching sulfuric acid showers on Venus to helium raining through the interior of Saturn.
Transcript:
Patrick McNameeKing: I'm joined today by Nicole Gugliucci from Saint Anselm College. Nicole, does it rain on other planets?
Nicole Gugliucci: So are we talking about rain on planet surfaces or rain inside planets?
Patrick McNameeKing: I didn't know it could rain inside of planets. Why don't we start with rain on planet surfaces.
Nicole Gugliucci: So Venus is one of our nearest planetary neighbors. It's about Earth size, but it's way, way, way crazy hot.
It has a carbon dioxide atmosphere that is incredibly thick. It's a runaway greenhouse gas effect on that planet.
There is sulfuric acid rain, which sounds so delightful. So as if the 900 degree surface temperatures weren't bad enough. There's sulfuric acid rain, which makes it a rather inhospitable place to to hang out.
Patrick McNameeKing: Yikes. All right, let's go back to the rain inside of planets.
Nicole Gugliucci: There can be rain of a sort inside gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, which don't really have a solid surface the way that our planet does.
The surface that we see is kind of one particular layer of clouds. And then as you go into the planet, you get denser and denser gas, and eventually you get kind of some weird liquid and eventually inside due to the heat and due to the intense pressure, you get a solid.
Patrick McNameeKing: So what's the rain like inside these gas giants?
Nicole Gugliucci: One type in particular that I like is inside Saturn. There's thought to be a layer where helium, which is typically a gas [that] condenses into liquid form and rains through the layer, which produces a lot of extra heat from the planet due to the friction of that rain going through the layer. And it's also thought to have some effects on its magnetic field.
Patrick McNameeKing: That's wild. Thanks so much, Nicole.
Have questions about the night sky? Send us an email, cosmic@nhpr.org.
