For the first meter , scientists have studied cloud and wind on the Nox side of Venus . And they ’ve found that it ’s very dissimilar from the daylight side .
That data comes from ESA ’s Venus Express space vehicle , which entered orbit around Venus in April 2006 before being crashed into the planet in December 2014 . lead by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ) , the discipline was published inNature .
We already knew that Venus has a weird superintendent - gyration , where its winds can rotate 60 times faster than the satellite . But it seems that on the night side , this outgrowth is even more chaotic than on the day side .
" This study challenges our current understanding of clime moulding and , specifically , the super - rotation , which is a central phenomenon seen at Venus , " said Håkan Svedhem , ESA Project Scientist for Venus Express , in astatement .
The team find that Nox side clouds form large , irregular normal , dominated by wave that come along to stand still in the air , call off stationary waves . In January this class , ahuge stationary wavewas seen on Venus by the Akatsuki spacecraft , stretch for more than 10,000 kilometers ( 6,200 miles ) .
In this study , the scientists used data from the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer ( VIRTIS ) to read the night side , using infrared to study the cloud . They plant they did not move with the standard atmosphere , an unexpected discovery that was later on confirmed by Akatsuki .
Stationary waves are think to form over hilly or other gamy - tiptop regions . Weirdly though , in this datum stationary waving were missing in the intermediate and lower cloud levels , up to about 50 kilometers ( 31 miles ) above the surface .
" We expected to find oneself these waves in the small level because we see them in the upper levels , and we think that they rose up through the cloud from the surface , " carbon monoxide - writer Ricardo Hueso of the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao , Spain , in the financial statement . " It ’s an unexpected effect for trusted , and we ’ll all need to revisit our framework of Venus to explore its import . "
Akatsuki is continue to orb Venus , so it may be capable to shed some lighting on some of the weird thing going on with the planet . With thedeath of Cassinitoday , Venus is now one of only three planet apart from Earth – the others being Mars and Jupiter – that have a human ballistic capsule in compass .
