Good morning friends. I leave the house early because I want to read some news around the world. This is the first time such infrared detections have been made for any planet and provide a new insight into Venus's atmosphere.
ESA's (European Space Agency's) Venus Express spacecraft has observed an eerie glow in the night-time atmosphere of Venus, which is infrared light coming from nitric oxide. This is showing scientists that the atmosphere of Earth's nearest neighbor is a temperamental place of high winds and turbulence.
The glow on Venus cannot be seen with the naked eye because it occurs at the invisible wavelengths of infrared. ESA's Venus Express, however, is equipped with the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) instrument, which can see these wavelengths.
VIRTIS has made two unambiguous detections of the so-called nightglow for nitric oxide at Venus. This is the first time such infrared detections have been made for any planet and provide a new insight into Venus's atmosphere.
"It can provide details about the temperature, wind direction, composition and chemistry of an atmosphere," he added.
The nightglow is ultimately caused by the Sun's ultraviolet light, which streams into a planet's atmosphere and breaks the molecules up into atoms and other simpler molecules.
Reference: yahoo news
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