Venus Express spatial probe, the European Space Agency, entered the orbit of Venus in April 2006 and ended its mission in December 2014 when it collapsed on the surface of the planet. Thanks to this probe, researchers first learned surprising information about what is happening on the dark side of the planet.
For the first time, scientists could see the dark side of the planet. Researchers from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency have published the conclusion of a vast study of Venus. They analyzed for the first time the information provided by the Venus Express space probe, the European Space Agency. The probe entered the orbit of Venus in April 2006 and ended its mission in December 2014 when it collapsed on the surface of the planet.
New research shows giant holes in Venus’s atmosphere – which serve as extra clues for understanding this planet so different from our own. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/DubersteinThanks to this probe, the researchers first learned surprising information about what is happening on the dark side of the planet. On the lighter side, which has been observed for a long time, wind gusts are extremely strong, reaching a speed 60 times faster than the rotation speed of the planet. Speed is higher at an altitude of 65 – 72 km. This is perhaps the strangest feature of Venus, and the phenomenon is called super-rotation. The atmosphere on the dark side of the planet behaves very differently from what happens on the sun-facing side. Here are clouded formations of clouds so far, with unusual dynamics, which seems influenced by the topography of the planet, writes Phys.org.
This means some clouds do not move with the atmosphere, which is extremely unusual. At the same time, cloudy formations seem to be dominated by another mysterious phenomenon on Venus – stationary waves, which are huge vertical formations that seem not to move at all. For the time being, it is not known how these are formed. It could arise from the contact between the extremely strong wind and the high surface areas of the planet, such as the mountains.
Still, these stationary waves do not appear near the surface, but at an altitude of over 50 km. Experts must therefore further analyze the information they have obtained so that they can untie at least some of the mysteries of this planet.
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