A recent Venus flyby with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has resulted in an unexpectedly good image of thscorched planet, along with a previous publication unknown capability for one of the spacecraft instruments.
The Parker Solar Probe mission, launched in 2018, has nothing to do with Venus. The NASA spacecraft is only using the weight of the planet to get closer to its true target: the sun. Finally, after several other flybys of Venus, the Parker probe will arrive within 4.3 million miles (6.9 million km) of our host star. The main goal of the mission, which is expected to last until 2025, is to better understand solar winds and the solar corona.
This image of Venus was captured in July 2020, when Parker was just 7,693 miles (12,380 km) from the planet’s surface. The Image broke a wide range of onboard Parker Solar Probe, or WISPR this amazing view of the planet, according to to NASA.
WISPR has two optical telescopes, designed to capture images of the solar corona, the area of the plasma around the star. in visible light (more about this device here). But here ‘s the thing – that dark splotch on Venus is a surface feature, that’s Aphrodite Terra – the largest Highland region on the planet. Aphrodite Terra appears dark as it is colder than the surrounding area. The surface of Venus is obscured by the thick atmosphere, but this image means that WISPR can detect thermal radiation as well as visible light.
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This WISPR may come as a complete surprise to the Parker team, according to Angelos Vourlidas, a WISPR project scientist from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). This device is “designed and tested for visible light observations,” Vourlidas said in a NASA statement, noting that they “expected to see clouds, but the camera pointed through to the surface.”
“WISPR effectively captured Venusian surface thermal emissions,” Brian Wood, an expert and member of the WISPR team from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, said in a NASA statement.
WISPR seems to have an unexpected capability, which is the ability to detect near-infrared light waves. If confirmed, NASA says this could change the scope of the messages to include studies of dust around the sun and also within the inner solar system.
In terms of those bright lights that can be seen in the image, which are cosmic rays captured by the camera. That’s the norm happens.
WISPR also saw a clear edge around the edge of Venus. This is probably a nocturnal plant, caused by oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere. The same thing happens on Mars, where the wonder echoes an amazing green cry.