Gallery: What New York City Would Look Like on Other Planets
01earth
Take a trip around the solar system and bring the entire city of New York with you in these captivating drawings showing how the atmospheres of other planets would interact with the iconic metropolitan skyline. The images were created by artist Nickolay Lamm of [StorageFront.com](http://www.storagefront.com/therentersbent/new-york-city-with-atmospheres-of-different-planets), who employed the help of astrobiologist Marilyn Browning Vogel to get the details right. Lamm said the idea came to him while looking at pictures that NASA’s Curiosity rover took of [Mount Sharp](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/03/4-billion-pixel-mars-panorama/). “I felt that if I could show people what New York City looked like on other planets, I’d give people a sense of how lucky we are to be living on Earth,” Lamm wrote in an email to Wired. “If you look outside, the sky, the air, the ground, the water, all mix perfectly to create what we call life.” Transporting some of New York city’s most well-known landmarks to other worlds can help give a real sense of their atmospheric chemistry and how conditions on the surface would bake, erode, or freeze the buildings. Here, we take a look at how the Big Apple would fare on the other planets in our solar system. __Above:__ Earth ----- New York City is in the midst of spring, when winter’s gloom gives way to a brief period of perfect weather before the summer heat makes things unbearable. Here, you can enjoy the sunshine and blue skies of New York on our world.
02mercury-3
Mercury ------- The closest planet to our sun has a thin and tenuous atmosphere made of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, and other trace elements. Solar radiation pushes on the atmosphere, sweeping it back into a long comet-like tail that trails behind Mercury and would be visible as a sparkling haze in the upper atmosphere. New York City would not stand for a long time in the volcanic dust and baking heat of the planet’s surface.
03venus-2
Venus ----- A runaway greenhouse effect created a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide on Venus, resulting in crushing surface pressure and temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Cloud of sulfuric acid create a yellowish haze, [and possibly rain](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/04/vega-venus-rain/), that would block out the sun and erode the buildings on New York. The planet is wrapped in superfast winds that form [S-shaped vortices](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/03/venus-chaotic-vortex/) at its poles. Though the surface is a terrible place, there is an area in the upper atmosphere of Venus with [much more benign and Earth-like conditions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus#Aerostat_habitats_and_floating_cities).
04mars-2
Mars ---- The Red Planet has a cold, thin carbon dioxide atmosphere about 100 times thinner than our own. The atmospheric lack of density is actually a major stumbling block [to getting objects to the surface](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/landing-on-mars/), since parachutes are insufficient. The oxidizing chemistry on Mars means that immigrants would see a very rusted Statue of Liberty if they were ever to stumble upon such a sight. Fine dust particles would also quickly cover New York during one of the planet’s frequent dust storms.
05jupiter-3
Jupiter ------- Jupiter is a gas giant, with a thick atmosphere comprised mainly of hydrogen and helium. The planet lacks any real surface but its crushing gravity would condense these gases into liquid and metallic forms at lower altitudes. New York City would have nothing to stand upon on Jupiter but it could float like *Star Wars’* Cloud City at around 100 km. The ammonia and sulfur clouds of Jupiter would burnish any metal (either through artistic license or space magic, New York's greenery appears largely unaffected).
06saturn-2
Saturn ------ Saturn’s atmosphere is similar to Jupiter’s and New York City is seen here floating at about 100 km above the planet’s surface. There, it would find clouds of ammonia ice and thunderstorms while light hydrocarbons would float high above. Like Jupiter, Saturn is home to terrible storm systems, which can appear suddenly and [wrap around the entire planet](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/saturn-storm/), producing [incredible and powerful vortexes](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/saturn-largest-hottest-vortex/).
07uranus
Uranus ------ The ice giant Uranus has an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium with methane clouds that can be seen above the city skyline in this image. The atmospheric methane would produce a beautiful aquamarine tint but the hurricane-strength winds would obliterate the poor city of New York.
08neptune
Neptune ------- As our solar system’s outermost world (sorry, Pluto lovers), Neptune is one of the coldest and darkest places you can find. Its atmosphere is made up of hydrogen, helium, and various ices, includine water and ammonia. The cold and winds would likely wreak havoc on New York City’s structures.
