In Poul Anderson's Three Worlds To Conquer and "Hunters of the Sky Cave," Jupiter has a solid surface.
In "Hunters...," Flandry, descending, sees:
a glowing, multi-colored planetary surface;
moving dark storms bigger than Terra;
thousand-kilometer-long clouds of ammonia crystals;
the blue and green streaks of free radicals;
lightning in a purple sky;
sodium explosions;
allotropic ice crumbled, then lifted, by methane ocean waves flattened by pressure and gravity;
a vast plain where organisms neither plant nor animal lash at hundred-meter-long flying ribbons;
colored, singing bubbles on a red wind;
an immense, blue, low-built, artificial structure;
flashing white energy;
Ymirites flying, or rather swimming, in the dense atmosphere, some on their own wings, others in gliders.
He also feels and hears titanic winds.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteAll this makes me believe I should look up what contemporary scientists believe Jupiter to be like given what we know NOW.
Ad astra! Sean