NASA’s Parker solar probe surprises scientists with wild image of Venus

From NASA Parker solar probe, a small spaceship designed to “touch the sun”, caught new wild images of the infernal planet Venus in a recent flyby, surprises scientists and offers new opportunities for science.

Flying over Venus, the probe captured photos of a bright circle of light around the planet, NASA said on Wednesday. The researchers said the rim was a night-time glow, or “the light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere which recombine into molecules overnight.”

The image, captured by the wide-field imager for Parker solar probe (WISPR), also shows Venusthe greater region of the highlands, a place called Aphrodite Terra. In the image above, it’s the dark section in the middle.

“WISPR is designed and tested for visible light observations. We expected to see clouds, but the camera scanned up to the surface, ”said Angelos Vourlidas, WISPR scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. It could mean that WISPR is able to capture near infrared light. The team is wondering if it can be used to study dust not only around the sun, but in the inner solar system.

The Parker Solar Probe is on a seven year mission to study the solar wind, but uses the gravity of Venus to get closer to the sun. The probe is the fastest man-made object and closest object to the sun we have ever built and it uses the flyovers of Venus to increase its speed and tighten its orbit.

The last flyby was on February 20, 2021, which will help the spacecraft’s speed increase to 147 kilometers per second. That means he could get from New York’s Yankee Stadium to Philadelphia in the blink of an eye.

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