The universe is a mighty big place, but there is no shortage of amazement right here in our celestial neighborhood. From Venus's searing surface temperatures, hot enough to melt lead, to Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a storm that has been raging for hundreds of years, to the cryovolcanoes of the Saturnian moon Enceladus, the solar system boasts plenty of extreme locales.

That is the thrust of a new book, The 50 Most Extreme Places in Our Solar System (Harvard University Press), which serves as a kind of photo-illustrated guidebook for the planets—along with their accompanying moons and rings—that surround the sun. The book's authors, David Baker of Austin College and Todd Ratcliff of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, acknowledge that they use the term "places" loosely: Some of the 50 entries are specific events, such as the asteroid impact that killed off the dinosaurs on Earth, and some are long-term phenomena, such as plate tectonics.

For a glimpse at our planetary system at its most intense, exotic and unique, we have selected a small sampling of Baker and Ratcliff's most extreme places. Click here for a guided tour through the wonders of the solar system, from a backspinning moon of Neptune to a breathtaking astrological phenomenon right here on Earth.

25 Comments

1. 1. jtdwyer 01:28 PM 9/7/10

   I think you missed the most interesting place in the Solar system: the North pole of Saturn. There is there a enormous storm spanning the entire region, as far as is known a permanent feature, that is clearly octagonal in shape. There is no know explanation for this phenomena, but it is rarely mentioned.

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2. 2. candide 03:09 PM 9/7/10

   @jtdwyer -
   
   Thanks for mentioning that, it is certainly very interesting, but the feature is hexagonal. Either way there is no known explanation for it.

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3. 3. jtdwyer in reply to candide 08:36 PM 9/7/10

   candide - Sorry for the error; thanks for the correction and comment.

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4. 4. jack.123 08:44 PM 9/7/10

   What an odd cluster at the center,may be hard to explain?

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5. 5. VK 09:12 AM 9/8/10

   Now, when we speak of a mountain's hight on Earth we speak of its hight from the sea level ?
   
   How do we measure the hight of the Martian mountains ? is there a virtual level we start to measure their hights, or merely we start from the deepest place of the mountain's skirt ?

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6. 6. pauladriaenssens 09:36 AM 9/8/10

   Olympus would hardly be experienced as a "mons" with its slope of 2 1/4 � !

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7. 7. Fabrice LOTY 10:13 AM 9/8/10

   When praising ancient Roman buildings, roads and theaters, archeologists routinely give credit to famous Roman organizers.
   When describing discoveries from ancient civilizations, historians feel compelled to give credit to such brilliant designers.
   But when we discover even more wonderful places in the skies, we take offense at mentioning the mere idea of seeking the copyright holder.
   

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8. 8. stevec35 08:11 PM 9/8/10

   Astrological phenomenon? I presume you meant astronomical. Astrology has nothing to do with science.

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9. 9. mgoodm 11:33 PM 9/8/10

   I believe the previous poster was referring to God as being the copyright holder... If that is the case, please stop using this as a forum to argue with people that don't believe that your god created everything. Sometimes, all a person wants is to contemplate the utter awesomeness that is the universe and wonder in it regardless of how it was made, just for beauty's sake.

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10. 10. jtratcliff in reply to jtdwyer 03:50 PM 9/9/10

    The hexagon at Saturn's north pole (as well as the "Eye" at the other pole) are both discussed in the book... This slide show is only 8 of the 50 topics covered!

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11. 11. kiteman 05:29 PM 9/9/10

    In high concentrations, hydrogen sulphide loses its smell. It is highly poisonous. I would say the most extreme place is the centre of the sun.
    By the way, God created everything, including scientists and evolutionists!

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12. 12. jack.123 06:17 PM 9/9/10

    God created everything,including scientists,evolutionists,and Satan.

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13. 13. frankboase in reply to mgoodm 02:22 AM 9/10/10

    To true,some of these god bothers simply can not let an opportunity go by to inflict their prejudice and twisted opinions on others

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14. 14. Isarius in reply to mgoodm 05:49 AM 9/10/10

    "please stop using this as a forum to argue with people that don't believe that your god created everything. Sometimes, all a person wants is to contemplate the utter awesomeness that is the universe and wonder in it regardless of how it was made, just for beauty's sake"
    
    I agree - there are plenty of other fora/forums which will welcome Fabrice LOTY's views ...

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15. 15. Fabrice LOTY 06:53 AM 9/10/10

    The U.S. flag on the moon is evidence the idea of holding rights in space is not that absurd... so far as it doesn't include 'the one with whom we have an accounting'.

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16. 16. tomasz 04:14 AM 9/11/10

    @Fabrice: The CopyRight Holder is hiding in the HexaGON!

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17. 17. tomasz 04:16 AM 9/11/10

    @Fabrice: The CopyRightHolder SEES and Watches us from SATURN's HEXAGON!! Beware !

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18. 18. SJ_BGSmember 11:28 PM 9/11/10

    The hexagon is the most stable geometric pattern/structure, given the lowest possible density to achieve such stability. I read that this is why bees use a hexagonal pattern in their hives/honeycomb. The hexagonal pattern, at least on a macro scale (i.e. visible to the naked eye), achieves the strongest and most stable structure while requiring the smallest amount of resources & energy.
    
    For this pattern to exist on Saturn, the weather/wind patterns on North pole might somehow be isolated from the weather on the rest of the planet and allowing it to naturally, perhaps over millions/billions of years, gravitate to the shape of maximum stability, the hexagon. That's just a guess though.

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19. 19. jtdwyer 08:41 PM 9/12/10

    SJ_BGSmember - Thanks for the hex info. Does the assessment of geometric structural stability include the simple circle or ring? This seems to be the cloud structure most common found encircling rotating planets.
    
    I did find that Wikipedia has some descriptions at:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn
    under the ' North pole hexagonal cloud pattern' heading and a photo at:
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saturn_hexagonal_north_pole_feature.jpg
    
    The hex structure was discovered during NASA Voyager flybys in the early 1980s. The referenced most recent image was taken in 2006, indicating its persistence. Each side of the structure is 13,800 km long and extends through the atmosphere at least 75 km in depth.
    
    Eyeballing the larger photo, there appears to me to be some linear, twisting clouds within the hexagonal feature's peripheral structure, somewhat similar to the small twisting structures in Saturn's rings. It appears to me as if they may support the overall hex shape, perhaps by some influence on their twists at the corners of the hexagonal structure. Just a thought...
    
    I had wondered if Saturn's magnetic field might by chance consist of six partitions, but Wiki says is is a simple dipole structure...

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20. 20. Dave-R 04:29 AM 9/13/10

    Is there any moon of another, multi-moon planet where a second moon can cause a total eclipse when viewed from the first moon, i.e. where two moons and the sun form an alignment and the relative sizes are right? So far, eclipses seem always to be viewed from the planet, does they always have to be viewed from a planet?

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21. 21. mola 10:42 PM 9/14/10

    well can we built a machine that works om methane nad ethene gases and place it on saturn for scintific purpose? what we need is a source of energy to keep an instrument running. How about using this hydrocarbone to drive the future technology which may help solve the puzzle of the universe. Can some engeener come up with an idea that sucs the hydrocarbone from the atmospher or lake of ethene?
    That would be incredible!!!!!

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22. 22. abhay2009 12:43 PM 9/27/10

    Dear all, you have missed out Venus as the most extreme terrian. It has all the ingredients to be a most hostile place. Jupiter has also caotic atmosphere.

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23. 23. abhay2009 12:43 PM 9/27/10

    Dear all, you have missed out Venus as the most extreme terrian. It has all the ingredients to be a most hostile place. Jupiter has also caotic atmosphere.

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24. 24. mitsol7 04:44 AM 1/3/11

    Astrological phenomenon? I presume you meant astronomical. Astrology has nothing to do with science.

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25. 25. sauIt 10:26 AM 3/3/12

    Funny how this list of extreme places does not include gas fracking sites here on Earth.
    Looks like the author might be the beneficiary of Koch Bros. and Heartland Institute funding.

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