Fluidr / europeanspaceagency's "Venus Express" set

Venus (7 January 2014)

N 4 B 16.6K C 0 E Jan 9, 2014 F Jan 9, 2014

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Taken on 2014-01-07 06:36:09 UTC
Distance to Venus = about 280 km.

Spacecraft is now near its closest approach to the planet, and is at high Northern latitudes (~80 degrees).
The image shows a region of Venus about 90 km across.
The dark part of the image shows that something in the clouds is absorbing UV light. This is because the sulphuric acid clouds – which are highly reflective – are mixed with something else; this ‘something else’ may be elemental sulphur particles, but we’re not sure!

Credit: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Tags: Venus Venus Express ESA VEX

Venus (7 January 2014)

N 12 B 7.5K C 0 E Jan 9, 2014 F Jan 9, 2014

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Taken on 2014-01-07 07:55:09 UTC
Distance to Venus = about 12000 km

The spacecraft is now approaching the North pole of the planet, and is crossing from the dayside (on the left-hand side of the image) to the nightside (on the right-hand side of the image).

Again, cloud streaks show that winds are blowing around the pole. The dark band may mark the edge of the eye of the polar vortex, an enormous circulating region where air descends to the lower atmosphere.

A polar vortex is being blamed for the cold weather in much of the USA this week. Polar vortices are found on pretty much every planet with an atmosphere…

Credit: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Tags: Venus Venus Express ESA VEX

Venus (7 January 2014)

N 12 B 6.8K C 0 E Jan 9, 2014 F Jan 9, 2014

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Taken on 2014-01-07 01:04:59 UTC
Distance to Venus = about 50000 km

Spacecraft is high above South pole.
South pole is at right of image.

Venus is just over 12,000 km in diameter – only 5% smaller than the diameter of the Earth.

The striations in the cloud show that the winds are blowing around the pole. The planet and its winds rotate from East to the West, note that this is “backwards” compared to the rotation of the Earth and every other planet.

Note that the blotches on the image are camera artifacts: these are due to sensitivity variations in the camera, which are corrected for in a calibration procedure (that hasn’t been done yet for these images, since they were only obtained today)

Credit: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Tags: Venus Venus Express ESA VEX