Illustrator Nickolay Lamm, along with astrobiologist Marilyn Vogel, have transplanted New York City to the various surfaces — and atmospheres — of our solar system's planets.
All images via Nickolay Lamm, Storage Front.
Mercury
Vogel writes:
Mercury has but a thin envelope of gas that barely qualifies as an atmosphere. The inexorable solar wind continually strips the planet of any gases that might be captured or retained by gravity. The tenuous atmosphere consists primarily of hydrogen making the atmosphere transparent to the darkness of space and the withering radiance of the nearby Sun. The solar wind interacts with the planet’s magnetic field to blast columns of dust and charged particles up into the atmosphere that then become a comet-like tail, evident as the sparkling haze shown in the upper atmosphere. The landscape is perforated with impact craters and covered in volcanic dust, similar to Earth's moon.
Venus
The yellowish envelope of hot, sulphurous air in Venus's CO2-rich atmosphere obscures the skyline. The surface is dry and covered by craters, lava, and sulphurous dust. But one thing this image doesn't capture is how the buildings would be absolutely crushed by the intense pressure on the surface. It's also doubtful that the sun could be seen at all.
Mars
NYC doesn't look half-bad on Mars — but watch out for those dust storms.
Jupiter
This one's a bit of a stretch seeing as it's a gas giant. Vogel writes:
[Jupiter's] atmosphere is so large and thick that the hydrogen and helium gas components condense into liquid, and even metallic forms near the base of the atmosphere. At around 100 km height above this liquid surface, the air has a similar air pressure to Earth’s atmosphere at the surface, but has a reducing chemistry that would burnish any metal surface, including that of the Statue of Liberty. The NYC skyline is depicted at this 100 km level, floating in the atmosphere. This area of Jupiter’s sky is a vast body of clear gaseous hydrogen. NYC is nestled between Jupiter's clouds of water, ammonia and sulfurous gases (the sallow clouds below) that sometimes converge into powerful thunderstorms (seen erupting below). Above the skyline hangs a yellow haze of hydrocarbons.
Saturn
Cloud city, anyone? This depiction also shows the city about 100 km above the surface with conditions very similar to that of Jupiter.
Uranus
Vogel writes:
Uranus is a cold gas giant that rotates perpendicular to the plane of its orbit. It has very high winds speeds at certain latitudes due to the uneven heating of its surface. These winds are faster than the most powerful hurricane on Earth and would thus obliterate structures like the Statue of Liberty. The atmosphere is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium with occasional clouds of methane and bands of hydrocarbon haze, shown as the horse tail clouds above the skyline. The atmosphere also contains a considerable fraction of methane, giving the air a beautiful aquamarine tint.
Neptune
The azure tint is created by Neptune's atmosphere of hydrogen and helium with traces of ammonia and water. This atmosphere is the coldest place in the solar system.
H/t Wired.