New York City on Mars

Imagine to place New York City on another planet in our solar system. Life of course would cease to exist at least as we know it. You will realize once more that our beautiful blue planet is very rare. The following illustrations were made with the help of Marilyn Vogel.

Images © Nickolay Lamm,

Above: Mars has an oxidizing chemistry very thin and cold atmosphere composed primarily of CO2. The NYC skyline is thus caked in dust and framed in Mars’ dusty red atmosphere.   Larger image


New York City


New York City on Mercury

Mercury has but a thin envelope of gas that barely qualifies as an atmosphere. The inexorable solar wind continually strips the planet of any gases that might be captured or retained by gravity. The landscape is perforated with impact craters and covered in volcanic dust, similar to Earth’s moon.


New York City on Venus

Venus has a prolific volcanic activity and is blanketed in an atmosphere of CO2 with clouds of sulfuric acid. The landscape is devoid of water and covered by craters, lava, sulfurous dust and other features created by Venus’ volcanoes.


New York City on Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest of the outer gas giant planets. Its atmosphere is so large and thick that the hydrogen and helium gas components condense into liquid, and even metallic forms near the base of the atmosphere. NYC is nestled between Jupiter’s clouds of water, ammonia and sulfurous gases (the sallow clouds below) that sometimes converge into powerful thunderstorms.


New York City on Saturn

Saturn has a similar atmosphere to that of Jupiter, containing a mixture of hydrogen and helium that condense at the base of the atmosphere. NYC is shown at about 100 km above this liquid surface, where the clear hydrogen resides at similar pressures to Earth’s atmosphere and contains soft cream colored clouds of ammonia ice with occasional thunderstorms.


New York City on Uranus



New York City on Neptune

Neptune is the outermost planet of the solar system and thus the darkest. Like the other gas giants it experiences extreme winds that would destroy buildings and other structures. Neptune’s atmosphere consists primarily of hydrogen and helium with traces of ammonia and water giving it an azure tint.


Pluto is not a planet anymore! It was recategorized as a dwarf planet.

Author: Nickolay Lamm

Marilyn Vogel has a Ph.D. in Astrobiology, worked at NASA Ames for five years, and now teaches science at the university level. The descriptions for each of the different planets below were provided by her.

For media inquiries, please contact Nickolay Lamm at [email protected]

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via wired