Astronomy Picture of the Day
    


Mysterious Acid Haze on Venus
<< Yesterday 26.02.2008 Tomorrow >>
Mysterious Acid Haze on Venus
Credit & Copyright: ESA/MPS, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
Explanation: Why did an acidic haze spread across Venus? The unusual clouds were discovered last July by ESA's robotic Venus Express spacecraft currently orbiting Venus. The bright and smooth haze was found by Venus Express to be rich in sulfuric acid, created when an unknown process lifted water vapor and sulphur dioxide from lower levels into Venus' upper atmosphere. There, sunlight broke these molecules apart and some of them recombined into the volatile sulfuric acid. Over the course of just a few days last July, the smooth acidic clouds spread from the South Pole of Venus across half the planet. The above false-color picture of Venus was taken last July 23rd in ultraviolet light, and shows the unusual haze as relatively smooth regions across the image bottom. The cause of the dark streaks in the clouds is also not yet understood and is being researched.


January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
 < February 2008  >
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su




123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
2526272829

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Based on Astronomy Picture Of the Day

Publications with keywords: Venus - clouds
Publications with words: Venus - clouds
See also:
All publications on this topic >>