This planet's south pole was first seen in detail in 2006, when the Venus Express spacecraft began orbiting it

Jan 21, 2015 07:51 GMT  ·  By

This week, astronomers with the European Space Agency turned nostalgic and found themselves revisiting an image of a vortex at Venus' south pole that was obtained quite a while back with the help of the Venus Express spacecraft.

The image in question, featured next to this article, shows the vortex as seen by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer aboard the Venus Express spacecraft.

As detailed by European Space Agency scientists, the Venus Express probe entered its target planet's orbit in April 2006. A year later, in April 2007, the spacecraft produced this image detailing the anatomy of Venus' south pole.

What's so special about this space image?

Long before the Venus Express spacecraft was built and launched into space, the Pioneer Venus orbiter and the Mariner 10 missions offered astronomers an unprecedented look at Venus and its atmosphere.

The thing is that the Pioneer Venus orbiter and the Mariner 10 missions focused on the planet's north pole and not its south one. It wasn't until the Venus Express spacecraft placed itself in Venus' orbit that scientists got to study the planet's south pole in detail.

“Other than brief glimpses from the Pioneer Venus and Mariner 10 missions in the 1970s, Venus’ south pole had not been seen in detail until ESA’s Venus Express first entered orbit in April 2006,” scientists with the European Space Agency explain.

So, what exactly are we looking at?

Venus' atmosphere is a tad hyperactive, especially high up in the sky. Thus, it is estimated that, 70 kilometers (about 44 miles) above the surface, winds travel at a speed of about 400 kilometers per hour (roughly 250 miles per hour).

What's more, heat rising from the planet's equator births and supports vortices at both the planet's poles. The south vortex imaged by the Venus Express spacecraft comprises warming and cooling gases that are forever spinning, hence the fact that the vortex's appearance changes from one day to the other.

It is understood that the swirling mass of gases shown in this image was hovering over the planet's surface at an altitude of about 60 kilometers (some 37 miles) at the time the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft got to work studying it.

In this thermal-infrared image, the so-called eye of the vortex, i.e. its central region, appears brighter than the mass of gases moving around it. This is because temperatures inside this eye are higher than in the clouds of gases circling it.

Video sequence shows Venus' south pole vortex moving
Video sequence shows Venus' south pole vortex moving

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Image shows vortex at Venus' south pole
Video sequence shows Venus' south pole vortex moving
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