{"id":11830,"date":"2021-02-28T17:46:43","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T09:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/parker-solar-probe-pulls-back-the-veil-on-venuss-night-side\/"},"modified":"2021-02-28T17:46:43","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T09:46:43","slug":"parker-solar-probe-pulls-back-the-veil-on-venuss-night-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/parker-solar-probe-pulls-back-the-veil-on-venuss-night-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Parker Solar Probe pulls back the veil on Venus\u2019s night side"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When flying past Venus in July 2020, Parker Solar Probe\u2019s WISPR instrument, short for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow \u2014 light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside. The prominent dark feature in the center of the image is Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland region on the Venusian surface. Bright streaks in WISPR, such as the ones seen here, are typically caused by a combination of charged particles \u2014 called cosmic rays \u2014 sunlight reflected by grains of space dust, and particles of material expelled from the spacecraft\u2019s structures after impact with those dust grains. The number of streaks varies along the orbit or when the spacecraft is traveling at different speeds, and scientists are still in discussion about the specific origins of the streaks here. The dark spot appearing on the lower portion of Venus is an artifact from the WISPR instrument. Credits: NASA\/Johns Hopkins APL\/Naval Research Laboratory\/Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An ultra-sensitive camera on NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe caught an ethereal glimpse of the night side of Venus during a flyby last year, unexpectedly seeing through thick atmospheric haze to reveal part of the planet\u2019s hellishly hot landscape.<\/p>\n

Parker\u2019s wide-field imaging instrument, known as WISPR, is designed to observe the large-scale structure of the sun\u2019s atmosphere, or corona, while other instruments on the probe measure electric and magnetic fields, and solar wind particles. The mission launched from Cape Canaveral in August 2018 and has traveled closer to the sun than any previous spacecraft.<\/p>\n

The mission is designed to study the origin of the solar wind, a fast-moving flow of particles streaming away from the sun in every direction. The solar wind drives space weather and influences the entire solar system, and can bring impacts such as communications and electricity blackouts, damage to satellites, and colorful auroral displays to Earth.<\/p>\n

Named for Eugene Parker, who correctly predicted the existence of the solar wind in 1958, Parker Solar Probe will also investigate why the solar corona is many times hotter than the sun\u2019s surface. The spacecraft is armored to withstand the extreme temperatures of the sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, where temperatures reach 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit (2 million degrees Celsius).<\/p>\n

Parker Solar Probe will continue breaking its own record in the coming years. The spacecraft uses gravitational slingshot maneuvers around Venus to alter its trajectory, moving the closest point of its orbit \u2014 or perihelion \u2014 ever-closer to the sun.<\/p>\n

The flybys with Venus also offer opportunities for bonus science. An image released by NASA last week shows the night side of Venus in stark contrast to a starry sky.<\/p>\n

Parker\u2019s wide-field imager captured the image of Venus during a flyby July 11, 2020, from a distance of 7,693 miles (12,380 kilometers) away, according to NASA. Developed at the Naval Research Laboratory, the WISPR instrument has two overlapping cameras that take pictures in visible light.<\/p>\n

Scientists expected Parker Solar Probe\u2019s images of Venus to show the planet\u2019s sulfuric acid clouds, which typically hide Venus\u2019s landscape. Instead, Parker\u2019s cameras saw hints of the surface of Venus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWISPR is tailored and tested for visible light observations. We expected to see clouds, but the camera peered right through to the surface,\u201d said Angelos Vourlidas, the WISPR project scientist from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.<\/p>\n

The picture released by NASA shows a section of Venus named Aphrodite Terra, the planet\u2019s largest highland region. NASA says Aphrodite Terra appears darker than its surroundings because it is about 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) cooler than neighboring regions.<\/p>\n

The bright rim around Venus\u2019s atmosphere may show a phenomenon known as nightglow created as oxygen atoms high above the surface recombine into molecules over the night side of the planet, NASA said. The streaks visible in the image may be the signature of cosmic rays, interplanetary dust grains, or materials from the spacecraft itself, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of streaks varies along the orbit or when the spacecraft is traveling at different speeds, and scientists are still in discussion about the specific origins of the streaks here,\u201d NASA said in a statement.<\/p>\n

U.S. scientists coordinated Parker\u2019s observations with the Japanese team managing the Akatsuki spacecraft, the only probe currently in orbit around Venus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWISPR effectively captured the thermal emission of the Venusian surface,\u201d said Brian Wood, an astrophysicist and WISPR team member from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. \u201cIt\u2019s very similar to images acquired by the Akatsuki spacecraft at near-infrared wavelengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s concept of Parker Solar Probe flying near Venus. Credit: NASA\/Johns Hopkins APL\/Steve Gribben<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA said scientists are studying whether the WISPR instrument might be sensitive to infrared light, which would be an \u201cunforeseen capability\u201d for the cameras. If they can see in infrared light, the cameras might be able to observe dust around the sun and in the inner solar system in a new way.<\/p>\n

If it turns out WISPR is not sensitive to infrared light, the images of Venus\u2019s surface \u201cmay have revealed a previously unknown \u2018window\u2019 through the Venusian atmosphere,\u201d NASA said.<\/p>\n

Parker Solar Probe\u2019s flight plan includes seven flybys with Venus during its seven-year mission. The spacecraft completed its fourth Venus flyby Feb. 20, bending Parker\u2019s orbit to set up for close approaches to the sun April 29 and Aug. 9. During those solar encounters, Parker will set a new record when it flies approximately 6.5 million miles (10.4 million kilometers) from the sun\u2019s surface, about 1.9 million miles closer than on the mission\u2019s previous perihelion Jan. 17.<\/p>\n

Ground teams sent up commands for the WISPR instrument to take more pictures of Venus during the Feb. 20 flyby. That data will be downlinked to Earth by the end of April, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really looking forward to these new images,\u201d said Javier Peralta, a planetary scientist from the Akatsuki team, who first suggested a Parker Solar Probe campaign with Akatsuki. \u201cIf WISPR can sense the thermal emission from the surface of Venus and nightglow \u2014 most likely from oxygen \u2014 at the limb of the planet, it can make valuable contributions to studies of the Venusian surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When flying past Venus in July 2020, Parker Solar Probe\u2019s WISPR instrument, short for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow \u2014 light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside. The prominent dark feature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1859,1860,1861,190,1862,1863,1561,1563],"class_list":["post-11830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-akatsuki","tag-heliophysics","tag-jhuapl","tag-nasa","tag-naval-research-laboratory","tag-parker-solar-probe","tag-planetary-science","tag-solar-system"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}