• Rin@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’ve seen some SciFi media with floating cities on planets with thick atmospheres, such as gas giants or Venus. It’s a neat concept imo that I’d like to see more.

    • BeautifulMind ♾️@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The problem with that really is that on a gas giant the physics are a nightmare- gravity is unlivable, by the point in the atmosphere you get to dense-enough fluid to float anything, it’s extremely hot and turbulent. If you dropped a modern submarine into Jupiter’s atmosphere, by the time it got there it would be molten and well beyond its crush pressure.

      On Earth, the pressure/density point (in water) that will float a boat occurs at a low enough pressure and temperature to be survivable by life as we know it- but on Jupiter when you’ve got to the point that it’s dense enough to float anything, it’s also hotter than the surface of the sun.

      Cloud City on Bespin is a super-cool concept but realistically nothing like that can work on a gas giant unless your sci-fi universe also provides magic antigravity to keep the gravity-well from crushing you lifeless.

      • Rin@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Well yeah, I wasn’t expecting something like this to be practical in the real world.

      • TheOakTree@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Maybe if it were a civilization of creatures with exoskeletons, low height, and a low surface area to volume ratio (think fleas, ticks)? Probably still not. It’s just completely unfeasible for humanoids.

    • flerp@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Indeed. If I’m recalling correctly there was one somewhat obscure little film a while back that had something like that. It was called something like Empire Fights Back or something, can’t quite recall. Not sure if anyone has seen that one or not.