ESA’s Venus Express has revealed Venus as never before. For the first time, scientists can investigate from the top of its atmosphere, down nearly to the surface. They have shown it to be a planet of surprises that may once have been more Earth-like, and still is, to a certain extent.
The latest results from the mission were presented today at a press conference held at ESA headquarters in Paris, where scientists and researchers gathered to share their groundbreaking findings with the public and media. This momentous event highlighted the significance of the discoveries made during the mission, which have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the universe.
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These remarkable findings have also appeared in the 29 November issue of the scientific journal Nature, further establishing the importance of the research conducted and the collaborative efforts of the international team behind it.
Permanently covered in clouds, Venus has been a mystery for centuries. Although it is the planet nearest to Earth, it has proved extraordinarily difficult to study because of its curtain of clouds that obscures our view of its surface.
“It is really surprising how un-Earth-like Venus is now,” says Fred Taylor, a Venus Express interdisciplinary scientist, University of Oxford, UK.
Venus has approximately the same mass as the Earth, yet it is a hellish place where surface temperatures are over 400°C and the surface pressure is a hundred times that on Earth. The key to understanding Venus lies in its atmosphere. It is much thicker than Earth’s and intercepts most of the Sun’s energy before it can reach the surface. That’s where Venus Express comes in.
“Today’s results focus on the different science themes Venus Express is covering,” says Dmitri Titov, Venus Express science coordinator from the Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research, Germany.
An important first set of results concerns the complex dynamics and structure of Venus’s atmosphere, studied with a whole suite of instruments.
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Titov added, “The spacecraft has revealed the structure and movements of the atmosphere, from its upper reaches to just above the surface, and has obtained the best global map of atmospheric temperatures to date. This is already improving our understanding of the global dynamics and the meteorology of Venus.”
“It is worthwhile mentioning the amazing 3D images of the south polar vortex, the fine details of clouds, some very Earth-like and hazes, precise wind measurements, and the nicest views ever of the phenomena that make Venus glow in space at infrared wavelengths,” added Håkan Svedhem, ESA’s project scientist for Venus Express.
A second set of results concerns both the atmosphere’s composition and its chemistry. Venus Express has taken compositional profiles of the atmosphere around the planet and unambiguously confirmed the presence of lightning, which can have a strong effect on the composition of the atmosphere itself.
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The challenge for scientists now is to match those readings of the atmosphere’s composition with known gases, because they behave differently in the extraordinarily high-pressure environment on Venus than they do on Earth or Mars. “We are only at the beginning of this work,” says Titov, “but we know new surprises are waiting for us.”
A third set of results concerns the processes by which Venus’s atmosphere is escaping into space. This is driven by the solar wind – a stream of electrically charged particles given out by the Sun. As the solar particles collide with electrically charged particles near Venus, they energise the gas, stripping it forever from the planet.
Venus Express has made giant leaps in understanding these phenomena and has found that Venus loses water due to its interaction with the solar wind. New measurements of heavy water in the atmosphere are also providing new clues on the history of water on the planet and its overall climate evolution.
However, not all mysteries are solved yet. One key question that scientists would still like to know is just how active the volcanoes of Venus are. “The contribution of volcanoes to the atmosphere could be enormous. Not knowing leaves a huge hole in our understanding of the climate,” says Taylor.
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For a planet that was once thought to resemble Earth, to one that was thought to be completely dissimilar, the tables have turned again. Thanks to Venus Express, Taylor now describes Venus as “Earth’s twin, but separated at birth.”
Venus Express has now completed its nominal mission. This involved watching the planet for two Venusian days, which, because Venus rotates so slowly, lasted approximately 500 Earth days.
Venus Express will now start its extended mission to watch the planet for two more Venusian days. One of the things that it will be doing is to look for the telltale infrared radiation from lava flows, but the analysis is proving difficult.
In 2010, a Japanese mission, Venus Climate Orbiter, also called Planet-C, will arrive at Venus, and this will allow scientists to compare results from the two spacecraft. More than 250 scientists and engineers across Europe are involved in the Venus Express mission, supported by their institutes and national space agencies.
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The mission also sees the significant contribution of scientists from Russia and Japan, working collaboratively to enhance our understanding of Venus, as well as from NASA, which proudly sponsors 15 American Venus Express scientists.
These experts are dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the planet’s atmosphere and surface conditions. Moreover, NASA provides invaluable support to the radio science investigation via its Deep Space Network antennas, ensuring reliable communication and data transmission throughout the mission.
This international partnership not only fosters innovation and scientific discovery but also emphasizes the importance of collaboration in exploring the unknown frontiers of our solar system.
Reference: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Venus_Express/Venus_Earth_s_twin_planet2
