Venus is almost the same size as our planet but, unlike our breathable space, it has a toxic carbon dioxide atmosphere where its surface, without oceans and devastated by lava, reaches an unfeasible 470 ºC capable of melting lead and any object that we send to the planet.
Now, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has managed to break through the veil of thick clouds that cover the surface of Venus to bring us the surprising new images of the planet’s surface. What do these images show us? Continents, plains and mountains, something that we had never been able to see in the visible spectrum of light, that is, the type of light that the human eye can see.
Scientists used data from the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) instrument to peer beneath the planet’s thick atmosphere , uncovering these impressive geological features.
“Venus is the third brightest object in the sky, but until recently we didn’t have much information about what the surface looked like because our view is blocked by a thick atmosphere,” says Brian Wood, an astrophysicist at the US Naval Research Laboratory and a member of the WISPR team. “Now, we are finally seeing the surface in wavelengths visible for the first time from space.”
How did the Parker probe do it?
Thanks to a series of flybys on the night side of the planet. Why watch it at night? Because at night, even though Venus is still radiating heat (the night side is about 860 ºC; it’s so hot that it shines at night ), the Sun is not an obstacle to capture a small red light that manages to escape from its dense clouds. It seems that on the night side, the space probe’s instrument unexpectedly detects temperature variations on the planet’s surface. Thus, by imaging the planet at night, Parker Solar Probe was able to see more detail of the surface of Venus in the spectrum visible from space than any other mission in human history.
Parker also introduces us to the toxic blanket of clouds that make the planet radiate a very striking glow. Aside from plains, plateaus, and continents, a luminescent halo of oxygen can also be seen in the atmosphere surrounding the planet.
“We are delighted with the scientific insights Parker Solar Probe has provided so far,” said Nicola Fox, division director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. ” Parker continues to exceed our expectations and we’re excited that these novel observations taken during our gravity-assist maneuver could help advance Venus research in unexpected ways.”
Although the images have not revealed anything new in terms of topography, all of them could help us better understand the geology, the minerals that make up this rocky and mysterious planet. Given the similarities between Earth and Venus, this information may reveal to us why Venus became so inhospitable and Earth such a haven for life. By now we know, for example, that Venus had a lot of volcanic activity in the past. How recent was that activity?
The goal of the Parker probe
Venus is not the goal of the Parker probe; his observations of Venus are almost incidental. Its primary target is our star, the Sun, but the probe uses the planet for gravity-assist maneuvers, using the planet’s gravity to make speed and heading adjustments on its mission toward the Sun. Parker, named after the astrophysicist who discovered the solar wind in 1958, Eugene Parker, will explore in detail the behavior of solar winds with a total of 21 approaches to our star in its seven years of life. Now the Sun is our last frontier.
Referencia: Biran E. Wood et at. Parker Solar Probe Imaging of the Night Side of Venus. Geophysical Research Letters. 2022. First published: 09 February 2022 DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096302
