Parker Solar Probe captures Images of Venus Surface

Parker Solar Probe captures Images of Venus Surface

• NASA’s Parker Solar Probe took its first visible light images of surface of Venus from space.
• Surface of Venus is usually shrouded from sight, covered in thick clouds. But in two recent flybys, Parker Solar Probe used its Wide-Field Imager (WISPR) to image the entire nightside in wavelengths of visible spectrum.
• It was a type of light that human eye can see and extend into near-infrared.
• The images were combined into a video, revealing a faint glow from the surface, which highlights distinctive features such as continental regions, plateaus and plains.
• A luminescent halo of oxygen can also be witnessed around the planet, in the atmosphere.
• The first WISPR images were taken in July 2020, when Parker embarked on its third flyby. Spacecraft uses the third flyby to bend its orbit closer to the Sun.

Published date : 14 Feb 2022 05:24PM