by Playfuls Staff |
3rd April 2007
The European Space Agency said images from its Venus Express spacecraft have provided new insights into the turbulent, [more] noxious atmosphere of that planet.
Venus' atmosphere represents a puzzle for Earth scientists. Winds are so powerful they circumnavigate the planet in four Earth days, while the planet itself takes 243 Earth days to perform one full rotation.
At the poles things become even more complicated, with huge double-eyed vortices, and dense clouds cover entire planet, preventing observers from seeing the surface.
Now Venus Express, using its ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared mapping spectrometer has transmitted images that might lead to a better understanding of Venus' atmosphere, the ESA said.
The images show Venusian atmospheric turbulences and cloud features vary in shape and size with planetary latitudes. At the equator, clouds are irregular and assume a "bubble" shape. At mid latitudes they are more regular and streaky, while in polar regions the clouds enter a vortex shape.
ESA scientists said the Venusian topography might play an important role in the planet's global atmospheric dynamics. Understanding the surface-atmosphere connection is one of the major objectives of Venus Express.
© 2007 UPI
