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Fun with rings
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| apenpaap | Date: Thursday, 07.06.2012, 00:15 | Message # 1 |
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| When anyone things about Saturn, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the rings. So I was wondering what Saturn would look like without them, and at the same time I wondered what the other planets (especially Jupiter) would look like with such a magnificent ring system...
First, I discovered simply copy-pasting Saturn's ring code wouldn't work, as all planets showed up with these stupidly oversized rings, looking like they're doing a silly costume party:
After fixing that, I took a good look at the newly ringed Solar system. First a look at the single ringless planet:
Screenshots don't really express how bizarre Saturn looks without its rings. Particularly its oblateness seems really obvious and looks very weird, making it look like a giant yellow space egg.
Mercury looks quite nice with Saturn's rings, getting quite an interesting look.
Venus ends up looking a bit like Saturn, thanks to its yellow clouds.
A ringed Earth is undeniably lovely. It also makes for fun views from the surface; the second shot is a look at the southern horizon from the approximate location of my home right now.
Mars's many surface details also make a nice look under the rings.
Ringed Jupiter is majestic. It really makes Saturn look boring by comparison. A shame SpaceEngine's Jupiter texture is quite blurry. (more to follow in next post)
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
Edited by apenpaap - Thursday, 07.06.2012, 00:17 |
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Thursday, 07.06.2012, 00:42 | Message # 3 |
 Cosmic Curator
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| Quote (apenpaap) A shame SpaceEngine's Jupiter texture is quite blurry.
There's a decent Jupiter texture that I like to use that you can find here: http://www.mmedia.is/~bjj/data/jupiter_css/index.html
There are also some good ones over at the Celestia Motherlode.
That shot of Mercury with the rings looks fantastic 
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| Talisman | Date: Thursday, 07.06.2012, 01:20 | Message # 4 |
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| Well done! Very interesting.
I wonder how our space history would have changed if Earth had rings, anyways I need to start messing around with Space Engine code, you can do some awesome things. 
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| Solaris | Date: Thursday, 07.06.2012, 02:11 | Message # 5 |
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| apenpaap, nice idea again the simply copy-pasting Saturn's ring code look funny...
the ringed mars look great !
I would love so much that earth have rings....
Talisman, indeed , i think that our space history have been different... we would have perhaps not been on the moon, or at least later, the choice of the target would have surely been different, the rings providing a closer destination.
HarbingerDawn, nice texture! thx
Edited by Solaris - Thursday, 07.06.2012, 02:40 |
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Thursday, 07.06.2012, 02:54 | Message # 6 |
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| Quote (Talisman) I wonder how our space history would have changed if Earth had rings
It would have been very interesting I think we might have gone to space sooner, but it would have been more challenging once we got there since we would need to make sure no satellites went into the rings. It almost certainly would have fueled a more vigorous interest and insight into science that we had in our history.
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| apenpaap | Date: Thursday, 07.06.2012, 11:25 | Message # 7 |
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| I wonder how long it would've taken people to figure out what the rings were... Until they figured it out, I'm guessing the mythologies about it would be somewhat similar to the mythologies about what the Milky Way is. Maybe people would think it was a road of the gods or something.
Something that occurs to me is that the rings would likely help make people realise the Earth was round. Though we on Earth realised it pretty quickly (in classical antiquity, not the 15th century as people who think Columbus was proving the world was round will have you think), the fact that the rings would often be partially lit at night and that you could see Earth shadow on them would likely help.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
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| Solaris | Date: Thursday, 07.06.2012, 14:43 | Message # 8 |
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| i agree with you apenpaap, old civilisations would assimilate the ring as a divinity or something.
what about Ptolémée, Galilée, Copernic , I wonder what conclusions they would have deducted, Huygens too when he discovered saturn ring, this discover would have had a different impact..
Quote (apenpaap) the fact that the rings would often be partially lit at night and that you could see Earth shadow on them would likely help.
indeed....
very interresting subject
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| apenpaap | Date: Thursday, 07.06.2012, 15:29 | Message # 9 |
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| By the way, for all those who want to explore the ringed solar system for themselves, here's the edited file in the attachment.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
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