Saturday 18 April 2015

The Jovian Atmosphere

Descending into the Jovian atmosphere in his scoopship, Hashimoto:

sees limitless, layered, seething, streaked, golden clouds and a dark, continent-sized storm;

hears thunderous sounds caused not by winds but by gigantic air pockets;

after passing through a dark cloud bank, looks up to see lightning against kilometers-high, cavern- and cliff-like clouds with a red sky above them;

passes through an ammonia storm of poisonous hailstones;

enters a region unreached by sunlight;

at the right depth according to his instruments, intakes the atmosphere - hydrogen, helium, methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide, water vapor, ethylene, benzene, formaldehyde and other organics - then ionizes, magnetically separates and throws away most of the hydrogen and helium.

When full, he reascends and runs into trouble when back in sunlight...

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