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Titan's Tropical Weather
Hugh Pickens writes "Climate researchers Ray Pierrehumbert and Jonathan Mitchell at the University of Chicago say that Titan, the only moon in the solar system large enough to support an atmosphere, has many of the same weather features as Earth, but with completely different substances that work at temperatures that plunge down to minus 170 degrees Celsius. Pierrehumbert and Mitchell call Titan's climate 'tropical,' a climate that is warm to hot and wet year-round, because on Titan methane assumes the role of water and exists in enough abundance to condense into rain and form puddles on the surface. Titan's tropical nature means that scientists can observe the behavior of its clouds using theories they've developed to understand Earth's tropics. For example, Titan's atmosphere produces an updraft where surface winds converge to lift evaporated methane up to cooler temperatures and lower pressures, where much of it condenses and forms clouds, 'a well-known feature on Earth called an ITCZ, the inter-tropical convergence zone,' Mitchell says."
Har har, but no, it wouldn't. Methane is odorless. That's why gas companies have to include additives with natural gas, so leaks can be detected.
The Gish Bar Times - Blog covering Jupiter's moon Io
I'd have to disagree -- people live in different areas of the earth where days are of vastly different lengths. And while it's not super healthy, many people live on all manner of strange day cycles with artificial light. I have read that without any clues as to time, people don't naturally settle into a 24 hour day anyways, and that in fact they vary their sleeping cycles longer and shorter over time.
:)
On the other hand, low gravity wreaks havoc with bones and blood vessel walls and such. Hot and cold we can control pretty well, so that's not a huge concern, though it certainly makes it more expensive. Radiation and such may also be a concern for planets without a strong magnetic field. And then there's the whole sustainable artificial ecosystem thing we've yet to work out to any real degree
Overall I think living on another planet is going to be a lot harder than we generally expect. We take for granted how well adapted we are to the specifics of planet Earth, and how much we depend on millions of other things that are also well adapted for the specifics of planet Earth. As someone suggested: it would be much easier to build a colony on the bottom of Earth's ocean than another planet, but we haven't even done that yet because it's cost prohibitive and the benefits aren't clear.
But we'll get there someday, I suppose!
Cheers.