A European
probe celebrated a birthday of sorts this week as it hits the one-year mark
round Venus, second planet from the
Sun.
The
European Space Agency’s (ESA) Venus Express spacecraft first
arrived at its cloud-covered planetary target on April 11, 2006.
“During one
year of observations, we have already collected huge amount of data, which is
exactly what we need to decode the secrets of an atmosphere as complex as that
of Venus,” said Håkan Svedhem, Venus Express project scientist at ESA, in a
statement. “Analyzing it is an extreme effort for all science teams, but it is
definitively paying back in terms of results.”
The images
above are false-color views of Venus’ oxygen airglow on the night side of the
shrouded planet.
The airglow
itself appears in blue with the various hues of yellow depicting differences in
cloud thickness in the field of view. The horizon of Venus appears at the bottom
right in both image panels.
Venus’
oxygen airglow occurs when oxygen atoms moving from the planet’s day side to
the night side recombine into molecular oxygen, a process that emits light.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA.
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