nature makes amends
with a few consolation prizes
as a way of saying sorry
for her generally poor performance

[ + links to  Relations with the real  -  Science catching up ]

Readers may have noticed that I grumble now and then about the way the Real Solar System is a rather miserable substitute for the gorgeous, romantic, colourful, life-filled OSS.

However, occasionally, one has to give Nature some credit for at least trying to pull her socks up.

The idea behind this page is to provide some outlet for thoughts and observations concerning such compensatory phenomena.

It ought to complement the Science Catching Up page, but with a more subjective, aesthetic slant. 

19th March 2025

THE ICE-SPIRES OF CALLISTO

I suspect that most of the observations here will be topographical; that's to say, occasions for admiring the scenery.  Too much of the real solar system is boringly cratered...

Stid:  Stop!  What are you on about?  Don't knock craters - what would our Moon be without its craters?

Zendexor:  Of course they're an integral part of the character of our Moon.  But for that matter would you want the Moon to be covered only with craters?  The saving grace of Luna is that its craters are supplemented and contrasted with many other features: maria, rilles, domes and mountain ranges.  But the trouble with Callisto - or so I thought for a long time - is that Voyager revealed it to be chockablock with craters and nothing much else.  And not even steep ones.  An icy moon's crust relaxes over aeons and so gradients sink lower and lower...  Zzzzzzz.....

Stid:  Whereas now you have found evidence to revise that opinion?

Zendexor:  I've found some, yes!  Found it while leafing through my beloved collection of old issues of Sky & Telescope (to which I subscribed from 1976 to 2008, after which I ran out of shelf space).  My eyes popped at what I saw in the December 2001 issue.  Just look at this:

ice spires of callisto

...don't know why I forgot about it until now.

Stid:  It's a dramatic scene, certainly.  I suppose there's no catch?  No annoying vertical exaggeration like you sometimes get in the image processing? 

Zendexor:  I know how annoying that can be; I hate it when they do that, it's such a fiddle.  But here it seems the pictures are honest and true, and even if the sun-angle perhaps makes the relief seem greater than it really is, it's still pretty amazing.

After the disappointments of Voyager, who would have thought Callisto had it in her?

Solar System Heritage