Every planet is different. But each one, when we are gliding at this height, also has similarities. Beautiful, mysterious. Carrying much hope and potential.
If this is your first trip to this planet, you’d think there was nothing solid below, only a gaseous entity enveloped in multiple layers of assorted clouds. Sheets of white sail by in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The late evening sun, warm and unhindered, lights the peaks of the clouds, while leaving other parts of the sailing behemoths in shade. A kind of powder blue / indigo lighting creates the illusion, however momentary, that we actually, physically, are flying over a mountain instead of a collection of water vapors.
The wind at this height really stretches the clouds out. I see a pair looking like crocodiles lounging on the surface of a river while soaking in the sun. Other clouds are thick, absorbing the full light of the sun and reflecting it back like giant, glowing cotton candies. As we watch, there now appear pieces of darker blue, among tattered puffs of white. I can’t see what’s there, and the ghostly light and the sheer drop below, makes it hard to tell from our vessel.
Then, as we make a turn, I see – in between the shreds of clouds, past the glowing light, way way below – what appears to be a body of water. A lake perhaps, glinting sunlight off its surface, glass-like. Very small from up here, but clearly containing a reflective substance. It could be water. That would explain the abundance of clouds. And then, around the possible water body, I steal a glimpse – as clouds below move this way and that – of what seems to my eyes to be not just an absence of vegetation, but exposed soil. My heart sinks in recognition, as moving clouds obscure the view once again. Exposed soil may mean one thing: Inhabitants. Such a patch around a water body, if visible at this distance, might also mean large scale land-clearing. It might mean exploitation.
If this is your first trip to this planet, the hope and potential you feel is fragile and may soon be gone. This might turn out to be just another planet.
photo from unsplash.com by Tom Barret