History Main / StrollingOnJupiter

* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'': Early builds included the ability to land on Jool, the fictional solar system's only gas giant. The "surface" was simply a way for the developers to texture the planet without having to do anything too different. Getting there would even reward the player unique messages from the scientific equipment [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] the absurdity of the situation, and, of course, the treat of wandering around a featureless green plain. Subsequent versions would make it harder and harder the land on Jool, culminating with the "surface" finally being removed altogether.
* ''VideoGame/StarFlight'': It's possible to land on gas giants, but you will immediately be crushed by their strong gravity.

[[DiscreditedTrope These days]], it's pretty well known that the four largest planets in our solar system lack anything resembling "solid ground." The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are almost entirely composed of a gassy atmosphere, and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are mostly a mix of semiliquid methane and water misleadingly called "ices". If they do happen to contain any solid cores, they would be under so much pressure from the super-thick atmospheres above them that any landing attempts would be impossible by modern technology. However, this wasn't always known, and some sci-fi authors speculated that there might be solid ground under the cloud layers which might even support life.

While some massive exosolar planets that appear to be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega-Earth solid]] have been observed, it's highly unlikely that they have environments anything like Earth's. This trope is primarily concerned with planets that have a surface with native life, or at least capable of supporting visitors.

A more common, recent adaptation of this is having the characters land/live on a ''moon'' of a gas giant-- indeed the concept of terraformed or habitable moons of surface-less gas planets has become quite popular in media and pop culture.

A more common, recent adaptation of this are having the characters land/live on a ''moon'' of a gas giant-- indeed the concept of terraformed or habitable moons of surface-less gas planets has become quite popular in media and pop culture.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
* Might be what's going on in ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' when the ghosts wander off of their determined haunting ground. They find themselves in a barren desert swarming with {{Sand Worm}}s. Since the worms are referred to as "Saturnian Sand Worms" at one point, this suggests that the desert might be somewhere on Saturn.
[[/folder]]

[[DiscreditedTrope These days]], it's pretty well known that the four largest planets in our solar system lack anything resembling "solid ground." The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are almost entirely composed of a gassy atmosphere, and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are mostly a mix of semiliquid methane and water misleadingly called "ices". However, this wasn't always known, and some sci-fi authors speculated that there might be solid ground under the cloud layers which might even support life.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Fangface}}'' episode "Dr. Lupiter and the Thing from Jupiter" opens with a rocket ship landing on the surface of Jupiter.

* ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'': In the final book, ''Skeleton Men of Jupiter'', John Carter is taken from Mars to Jupiter. Like Mars, the planet is depicted with a solid surface that has even forests and water, and is inhabited by 2 sentient races.

[[DiscreditedTrope These days]], it's pretty well known that the four largest planets in our solar system lack anything resembling "solid ground." The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are almost entirely comprised of a gassy atmosphere, and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are mostly a mix of semiliquid methane and water misleadingly called "ices". However, this wasn't always known, and some sci-fi authors speculated that there might be solid ground under the cloud layers which might even support life.

* In the Clifford D. Simak short story, "Desertion" (found in ''City''), Jupiter is a solid planet covered by howling winds. Humans have be transformed into Jovian lifeforms in order to go outside. [[spoiler:And once they do, they never come back...]]

[[DiscreditedTrope These days]], it's pretty well known that the four largest planets in our solar system lack anything resembling "solid ground." The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are almost entirely composed of a gassy atmosphere, and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are mostly a mix of semiliquid methane and water misleadingly called "ices". However, this wasn't always known, and some sci-fi authors speculated that there might be solid ground under the cloud layers which might even support life.

[[DiscreditedTrope These days]], it's pretty well known that the four largest planets in our solar system lack anything resembling "solid ground." The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are almost entirely comprised of a gassy atmosphere, and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are mostly a mix of semiliquid methane and water misleadingly called "ices". However, this wasn't always known, and some sci-fi authors speculated that there might be solid ground under the cloud layers which might even support life.

If these planets are inhabited, it's SolarSystemNeighbors. Since these planets tend to have higher gravity than Earth their inhabitants tend to be {{Heavy Worlder}}s. However, in some works, this aspect may also be ignored outright, and the high gravity not even mentioned. See OnceGreenMars and VenusIsWet for other [[ScienceMarchesOn discredited]] models of other planets.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'' plays with the trope. The Pact Worlds' gas giants, Bretheda and Liavara, have no solid surfaces, but they are teeming with life, all of which is adapted to either float, fly, or glide. Both planets are controlled by the buoyant jellyfish-like barathus. Other intelligent residents include the dreamers, distant relatives of the barathus with potent psychic abilities, and the insectoid haans, who float around on gas-filled balloons woven from silk their bodies produce.

[[DiscreditedTrope These days]], it's pretty well known that the four largest planets in our solar system lack anything resembling "solid ground." The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are almost entirely atmosphere, and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are mostly a mix of semiliquid methane and water misleadingly called "ices." However, this wasn't always known, and some sci-fi authors speculated that there might be solid ground under the cloud layers which might even support life.

* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'': Early builds included the ability to land on Jool, the fictional solar system's only gas giant. The "surface" was simply a way for the developers to texture the planet without having to do anything too different. Getting there would even reward the player unique messages from the scientific equipment lampshading the absurdity of the situation, and, of course, the treat of wandering around a featureless green plain. Subsequent versions would make it harder and harder the land on Jool, culminating with the "surface" finally being removed altogether.

* UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/{{Futurama}}'', where the frigging '''SUN''' (which is actually a ''star'', but TropesAreFlexible) is [[ConvectionShmonvection inhabited]]!

[[AC: Literature]]

* In the ''Literature/RickyRicottasMightyRobot'' series, all of the gas giants are depicted as having surfaces and life-- the Jurassic Jackrabbits from Jupiter, the Stupid Stinkbugs from Saturn, the Uranium Unicorns from Uranus, and the Naughty Nightcrawlers from Neptune.

* "{{Literature/Micromegas}}" has a humanoid native of Saturn as one of the characters.
* In Creator/EdmondHamilton's short story "A Conquest of Two Worlds", one of the titular worlds is Jupiter, with a solid surface and humanoid natives.
* In Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith's ''Hyperborean Cycle'', Saturn has an ashy surface, liquid metal lakes, and a wide variety of [[SolarSystemNeighbors alien inhabitants]]. Human visitors in the 1932 short story "The Door to Saturn" find it [[NoBiochemicalBarriers perfectly hospitable]] and end up living there.
* Creator/PoulAnderson's "Call me Joe" has a traversable Jupiter, except it has no known sapient life. An artificial remotely controlled humanoid is sent to conduct scientific research under the conditions. At one point it is remarked the situation shouldn't exist according to what is known, and no one is certain what the reason is; enough asteroids pulled in to form a solid surface, or a more fundamental error.
* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/NotFinal" Jupiter is inhabited by a xenophobic alien race who set out to exterminate humanity when they make radio contact with a colony on Ganymede. In the sequel "Literature/VictoryUnintentional" a trio of heavily overengineered robots are sent down to Jupiter's surface to ascertain the Jovians' technology, it's under a million Earth atmospheres of pressure at a temperature of -70 degrees Celsius. [[spoiler: Neither the environments nor the Jovians' heat rays phase the robots in the slightest, and the Jovians surrender thinking they were humans.]]
* ''[[Literature/CaptainUnderpants The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby]]'': At the end of the book, Super Diaper Baby and Diaper Dog get rid of the evil Deputy Doo-Doo by tying him in toilet paper and marooning him on Uranus, which is completely solid (and much smaller).

[[AC:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/UrbanJungle's'' "Astounding Science" supplement has life on all four giant planets, in homage to its' serial and pulp inspirations. Jupiter and Uranus have solid ground beneath their clouds, inhabited by hexapedal felines and silicoid armadillos respectively. While Neptune is a water world with shark people. Saturn might actually be a gas giant but the rings have an envelope of breathable air and dragon-like residents flying between the ice chunks.

[[AC: Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace'', gas giants can be colonized after researching the appropriate technology. The changes to the gas giants' graphics when they're colonized make it clear that the colonies are on the surface of the gas giant and not orbiting habitats.
* Early builds of ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' included the ability to land on Jool, the fictional solar system's only gas giant. The "surface" was simply a way for the developers to texture the planet without having to do anything too different. Getting there would even reward the player unique messages from the scientific equipment lamp-shading the absurdity of the situation, and, of course, the treat of wandering around a featureless green plain. Subsequent versions would make it harder and harder the land on Jool, culminating with the "surface" finally being removed altogether.

[[AC: Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Jupiter is seen in the episode "Love Triangle", where it's depicted as a rocky, brown surface with mountains. There's even life on it, in the form of a giant, blue {{cyclops}} alien.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "Mooncation", Sandy briefly slides across the rings of Saturn as if they were ice.

* ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'': The Tenth Men are designed to colonize Neptune after the Sixth-Ninth Men's homeworld of terraformed Venus becomes too hot to support life. Despite their HeavyWorlder physiology Tenth Man society collapses quickly but eventually a succession of eight other sapient species evolve from their descendants on Neptune, and the Eighteenth Men are mentioned to use Jupiter and Saturn as agricultural colonies.

* ''WesternAnimation/IMWeasel'': The titular character earned a statue for being the first being that landed on Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus, despite the latter two being a gas giant and an ice giant respectively.
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': In the short "Jumpin' Jupiter", Porky and Sylvester are abducted by an alien from Jupiter, and by the end, the pair end up on the surface of what is most likely Jupiter.