#venus

#venus

Beneath Its Thick Cover of Clouds, the Rocky Surface of Venus Glows Like a "Piece of Iron Pulled From a Forge"Venus’ rocky surface can clearly be seen in the images captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. Thanks to the probe’s Wide-Field Imager (WISPR), the entire nightside of the planet was captured and combined into a video. The video revealed a faint glow from the surface. Continental regions, plains, and plateaus can also be seen on the planet. According to Nicola Fox, division director for the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, the images can help experts learn more about the geology of the Earth’s twin. The insight the probe has given through these images has thrilled them. “Parker continues to outperform our expectations, and we are excited that these novel observations taken during our gravity assist maneuver can help advance Venus research in unexpected ways,” Fox added.The images are the first instance that the planet’s surface can be seen at visible wavelengths, as the surface is blocked by a thick atmosphere. The WISPR cameras were able to pick up the wavelengths that got through the clouds of Venus. Image credit: NASA/APL/NRL #space #Venus #science #WISPR #NASA #ParkerSolarProbe

NASA has a Video Explaining the 2029 DAVINCI Mission to VenusNASA has two missions to Venus planned: VERITAS and DAVINCI. VERITAS will fly around the planet, analyzing the clouds and taking images. DAVINCI, on the other hand, will fly around the planet for quite some time and then drop a probe to Venus's surface. The spacecraft and the probe will be loaded with state-of-the-art equipment to detect what gases fill the atmosphere and what elements make up the planet itself, and of course, take pictures. Sure, DAVINCI is named after the Italian artist, but they had to cheat a little to make the acronym work. It stands for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging. Despite "gases" not being capitalized, they are very important to the mission.

Spacecraft BepiColombo Took a Snapshot of Venus During a Gravity Assist ManeuverThe spacecraft BepiColombo, a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan's space agency JAXA, flew by Venus on its way to Mercury.Earlier this week, while performing a "gravity assist maneuver," BepiColombo took a snapshot of Venus in black and white. The spacecraft was 1,573 km (977 miles) away from the planet - at its closest, the spacecraft was just 552 km (342 miles) away.In the photo, you can see the high-gain antenna on the Mercury Planetary Orbiter at the top-left corner of the image.If you're wondering about the name, BepiColombo is named after Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo (1920 - 1984), a scientist at the University of Padua, Italy, who first suggested the gravity assist maneuver.Image: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM#spaceexploration #venus #BeliColombo #spacecraft #MercuryPlanetaryOrbiter #mercury #ESA #JAXA

Life is Possible in the Clouds of JupiterA new study by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, published in Nature Astronomy, showed that while life is not possible in Venus, it is possible in the clouds of Jupiter.Recent space exploration missions have looked for evidence of life in space by trying to identify the existence of water, but these new findings show that it's not the quantity of water that matters for viable life, but the effective concentration of water molecules or "water activity.""Our research shows that the sulphuric acid clouds in Venus have too little water for active life to exist, based on what we know of life on Earth," said John E. Hallsworth, lead author of the study. "We have also found that the conditions of water and temperature within Jupiter’s clouds could allow microbial-type life to subsist, assuming that other requirements such as nutrients are present."Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstadt/Heidi N. Becker/Koji Kuramura#water #jupiter #ExtraTerrestrialLife #venus

The Surface of Venus Moves Like a Pack of Ice on a Frozen LakeVenus was long thought to have an immobile solid outer shell like Mars or the Moon, but it turns out that the plant is actually more like Earth: it has large tectonic blocks that move like a broken pack of ice on a frozen lake."We've identified a previously unrecognized pattern of tectonic deformation on Venus, one that is driven by interior motion just like on Earth," said North Carolina State University professor Paul Byrne. "Although different from the tectonics we currently see on Earth, it is still evidence of interior motion being expressed at the planet's surface."This suggests that Venus is still geologically active:"We know that much of Venus has been volcanically resurfaced over time, so some parts of the planet might be really young, geologically speaking," Byrne says. "But several of the jostling blocks have formed in and deformed these young lava plains, which means that the lithosphere fragmented after those plains were laid down. This gives us reason to think that some of these blocks may have moved geologically very recently - perhaps even up to today."The researchers are optimistic that Venus' newly recognized "pack ice" pattern could offer clues to understanding tectonic deformation on planets outside of our solar system, as well as on a much younger Earth."The thickness of a planet's lithosphere depends mainly upon how hot it is, both in the interior and on the surface," Byrne says. "Heat flow from the young Earth's interior was up to three times greater than it is now, so its lithosphere may have been similar to what we see on Venus today: not thick enough to form plates that subduct, but thick enough to have fragmented into blocks that pushed, pulled, and jostled."Image: NC State University, based upon original NASA/JPL imagery#venus #geology #NASA #JPL #volcano