The Parker Solar Probe spacecraft captured the first light image of the planet’s surface during a flyby in 2021. Photo: CNN
HOUSTON, kilat.com – Under thick clouds, Venus shines aka glowing. The Parker Solar Probe spacecraft mission, which is meant to study the Sun, has revealed more about what lies beneath Venus’ thick atmosphere.
The state-of-the-art spacecraft captured the first light images of the planet’s surface during a flyby in 2021.
As Parker approached Venus in February 2021, he was able to capture the red hot light emitted by Venus. The rays are created by heat emanating from the planet’s surface.
“The surface of Venus, even at night, is about 860 degrees Celsius,” said study lead author Brian Wood, a physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory, in a statement. CNN. “So hot that the rocky surface of Venus appears to glow, 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.
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The Parker Solar Probe has an imager, called WISPR, that is able to peer under this hazy cover while photographing the entire night side of Venus in visible light that humans can see, as well as near-infrared light, which is invisible to the eye. WISPR is short for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar PRObe.
The spacecraft has used the gravitational assistance of Venus, where the probe essentially swings itself around the planet, to get closer to the Sun. During flybys in July 2020 and February 2021, Parker kept his imager on and pointed to the dark side of Venus.
The imager is designed to detect faint features in the solar wind flowing out of the sun. The newly released images are part of a study published Wednesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The image shows that the surface of Venus emits a faint glow, and features such as plains, plateaus, and continental regions can be distinguished. There is also a halo of oxygen in the planet’s atmosphere called airglow, a type of light that is also present in Earth’s atmosphere.
“We’re excited about the scientific insights that the Parker Solar Probe has provided so far,” said Nicola Fox, Divisional Director for the Division of Heliophysics at NASA.
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“Parker continues to exceed our expectations, and we are excited that new observations taken during our gravity-assisted maneuver can help advance Venus research in unexpected ways,” he said.
Radio Signals from Venus’ Atmosphere
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 is hot enough to melt lead, and another a haven for life.
“Venus is the third brightest object in the sky, but until now we don’t have much information about what its surface looks like because our view is blocked by the thick atmosphere,” Wood said. “Now, we are finally seeing the surface in visible wavelengths for the first time from space.”
Previous missions to Venus have shared insights about the planet using radar and infrared-detecting instruments that can penetrate thick clouds, such as NASA’s Magellan mission in the early 1990s.
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