m31td0wn

m31td0wn t1_j1en2f2 wrote

Oh no it was at least two years. It took them that long just to get from Earth to Saturn. And even though there were three planets within the system, it still is going to take time to travel between them. So probably closer to 4.

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m31td0wn t1_j0lo7hj wrote

Haha well temperature is just kinetic energy of molecules. Picture the atmosphere as a giant bag of marbles being shaken around. The faster it's being shaken, the more heat it contains. But if you add more marbles to the air, it becomes heavier, and harder to shake. So the shaking slows down. Keep adding more marbles, it's heavier and heavier, so it gets shaken slower and slower.

Not a perfect analogy but I think it gets the job done. The energy required to turn water into a gas is drawn out of the air, causing the air to lower in temperature.

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m31td0wn t1_j0l8gl9 wrote

That's just evaporative cooling, same as sweating. Although it is possible to cool the air by increasing relative humidity--that's how "swamp coolers" work. Basically humidifiers that spray a fine mist of water into the air, which in extremely arid environments evaporates quickly and lowers air temperature by raising relative humidity. It takes energy for water to phase shift from a liquid to a gas, and that energy comes directly out of the air it evaporates into.

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