Published:
10 feb 2022 23:01 GMT
Venus is the third brightest object in the sky, but until recently we didn’t have much information regarding what its surface looked like because our view is blocked by a thick atmosphere.
New images collected by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe have shown the surface glow of Venus radiating through its blanket of toxic clouds, a finding that might help scientists better understand the minerals that make up this planet. reported the space agency.
The surface of Venus, covered with dense clouds, is usually hidden from view. But in two recent flybys of the planet, Parker used its Wide-Field Imager, or WISPR, instrument to image the entire night surface in wavelengths of the visible spectrum, the kind of light the human eye can see, and that extend into the near infrared.
“Venus is the third brightest object in the sky, but until recently we didn’t have much information regarding what its surface looks like because our view is blocked by a thick atmosphere,” said Brian Wood, astrophysicist and member of the WISPR team at the Venus Laboratory. United States Naval Research. “Now, at last, we see the surface in wavelengths visible for the first time from space.”
WISPR imaged the entire night side of the planet in visible and infrared light, revealing regions such as continents, plains, and plateaus. In addition, scientists detected oxygen in the atmosphere of Venus, forming a halo around the planet.
However, this is not the first time that WISPR has taken images of Venus, having previously done so during a flyby in July 2020, the third of the mission. By combining the new images with the old ones, scientists now have a broader range of wavelengths to study, which can help identify what minerals are on the planet’s surface, NASA said.