The Parker Solar Probe mission, designed to study the Sun, has revealed more about what lies beneath Venus’ thick atmosphere. The spacecraft captured its first visible-light images of the planet’s surface during a flyby in 2021.
When Parker approached the planet in February 2021, it was able to capture the red thermal glow exhaled by Venus, created by heat coming from the planet’s surface.
“The surface of Venus, even on the night side, is about 860 degrees,” lead study author Brian Wood, a physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory, said in a note. “It’s so hot that the rocky surface of Venus is visibly shiny, like a piece of iron pulled from a forge.”
The surface of Venus remains a mystery to scientists because it is hidden under thick clouds that prevent it from being seen.
Parker Solar Probe has an imager, called WISPR, that was able to see beneath this cloud cover while photographing the entire night side of Venus in visible light that humans can see, as well as near-infrared light, which, if otherwise, it is invisible to us. The name WISPR is the English abbreviation for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar PRobe.
The spacecraft used the gravity of Venus, where the spacecraft essentially rotates around the planet, to get closer and closer to the sun. During these flybys, in July 2020 and February 2021, Parker kept its imager on and pointed it toward the dark side of Venus.
The imager is designed to detect faint features in the solar wind flowing from the Sun. The new images presented recently are part of a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The images show that the surface of Venus exudes a faint glow, and features such as plains, plateaus and continental regions can be distinguished. There is also a glowing halo of oxygen in the planet’s atmosphere called atmospheric luminescence, a type of light that also exists in Earth’s atmosphere.
“We are excited about the scientific insights Parker Solar Probe has provided us so far,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics division at NASA Headquarters, in a statement. “Parker continues to exceed our expectations, and we are excited that these new observations made during our gravity assist maneuver can help advance Venus research in unexpected ways.”
Venus is often called Earth’s twin because of the similarity in size and structure between the two planets. Images like those captured by Parker could help scientists determine why one planet has temperatures hot enough to melt lead and the other has become a haven for life.
“Venus is the third brightest thing in the sky, but until recently we didn’t have much information about what the surface was like because our view of it is blocked by a thick atmosphere,” Wood said. “Now, we’re finally seeing the surface at wavelengths visible for the first time from space.”
Previous missions to Venus shared information about the planet using radar and infrared detection instruments that could penetrate thick clouds, such as NASA’s Magellan mission in the early 1990s.
The new images could help scientists learn more about the geology and minerals present on Venus, because they glow in unique wavelengths of light when heated.
Parker will continue to use the gravity of Venus as it approaches the sun, but the trajectory of the next flyby will not allow it to collect images. The next opportunity to view Venus will be during the seventh and final flyby, in November 2024.
The spacecraft’s success in observing Venus, while revealing new perspectives on our sun, has inspired teams supporting other missions to collect images and data as they fly across Venus, such as the BepiColombo mission to study the Mercury and Solar Orbiter spacecraft. .
Venus is the target of several future missions later this decade, such as VERITAS and DAVINCI, which will image and sample the planet’s atmosphere and create a new high-resolution map of the surface in infrared light.
“By studying the surface and atmosphere of Venus, we hope that upcoming missions will help scientists understand the planet’s evolution and what was responsible for making it inhospitable today,” Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division, said in a note. from NASA headquarters.
“While DAVINCI and VERITAS will primarily use near-infrared imaging, Parker’s results have shown the value of imaging over a wide range of wavelengths.”
Source: CNN Brasil
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
