Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 July 23 
Posted on 07/23/2002 8:57:28 AM PDT by petuniasevan
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 July 23
Explanation: What would it be like to stand atop the tallest mountain on Earth? To see a full panoramic vista from there, scroll right. Visible are snow peaked mountains near and far, tremendous cliffs, distant plateaus, the tops of clouds, and a dark blue sky. Mt. Everest stands 8.85 kilometers above sea level, roughly the maximum height reached by international airplane flights, but much less than the 300 kilometers achieved by a space shuttle. Hundreds of people have tried and failed to climb the behemoth by foot, a feat first accomplished successfully in 1953. About 1000 people have now made it to the summit. Roddy Mackenzie, who climbed the mountain in 1989, captured the above image. Mt. Everest lies in the Himalayan mountains in the country of Nepal. In the native language of Nepal, the mountain's name is "Sagarmatha" which means "goddess of the sky."
Astronomy Fun Fact:
The air pressure at the summit of Everest is around 300 millibars
(compare that with a sea-level pressure of 1000 millibars, or one bar).
But this is still soup compared to Mars' air pressure: about 6 to 8 millibars!
Get on the APOD PING list! 
Of course, this thread isn't complete without recalling of Senator Hillary's famous lie about being named after Sir Edmund Hillary. In fact, he was a complete unknown prior to conquering Everest five years after her birth.
At night, of course you can!
Seriously, in daytime I would think you could see the brighter planets and stars - maybe. But lack of oxygen means your vision isn't as acute, and the camera will wash out the landscape if you try to expose a sky photo for long enough to bring out stars. Plus no one spends any more than the absolute minimum time up there - the body's deterioration is rapid at extreme altitude.
Senator Hillary's famous lieHellary lying is like Gore lying. You can't spend all that time with a lying sack of modell and expect that the flies won't still find you yummy even when said sack isn't present.
-Eric
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