Venus as observed in total flux F (left) and polarized flux U (right) through the Hα continuum filter (see Table 1). Due to Venus’s orientation, the planetary scattering plane makes an angle of about 45° with ExPo’s optical plane (the two orthogonal directions along which ExPo measured U are indicated below the image). The spatial resolution is approximately 775 km at the subobserver point on Venus’s disk. Credit: The Planetary Science Journal (2026). DOI: 10.3847/psj/ae7e6f
In 2010, scientists waiting to use the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands captured a brief 36 minutes of images of Venus. They were waiting for the sun to set so they could look at distant stars and dust disks around young stars...
Gravity waves form in the atmosphere as a result of destabilizing processes, for example at weather fronts, during storms or when air masses stroke over mountain ranges. They can occasionally be seen in the sky as bands of cloud. For weather forecast and climate models, however, they are mostly ‘invisible’ due to their short wavelength. Credit: Copyright Dr. Gerd Baumgarten
Gravity waves form in the atmosphere as a result of destabilizing processes, for example at weather fronts, during storms or when air masses stroke over mountain ranges. They can occasionally be seen in the sky as bands of cloud. For weather forecast and climate models, however, they are mostly “invisible” due to their short wavelength...
1. The atmospheric superrotation at the upper clouds of Venus. While the superrotation is present in both day and night sides of Venus, it seems more uniform in the day (AKATSUKI-UVI image at 360 nm, right side), while in the night this seems to become more irregular and unpredictable (composite of Venus Express/VIRTIS images ar 3.8 μm, left). Credit: JAXA, ESA, J. Peralta (JAXA) and R. Hueso (UPV/EHU) 2. Examples of new types of cloud morphology discovered on the night side of Venus thanks to Venus Express (ESA) and the infrared telescope IRTF (NASA): stationary waves (Venus Express, up-left corner), “net” patterns (IRTF, up-right), mysterious filaments (Venus Express, down-left) and dynamical instabilities (Venus Express, down-right). CREDIT: ESA, NASA, J. Peralta (JAXA) and R...
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