NASA s New Views of Venus Surface From Space

NASAs Parker Solar Probe has taken its first visible light images of the surface of Venus from space. Smothered in thick clouds, Venus surface is usually shrouded from sight. But in two recent flybys of the planet, Parker used its WideField Imager, or WISPR, to image the entire nightside in wavelengths of the visible spectrum the type of light that the human eye can see and extending into the nearinfrared. The images, combined into a video, reveal a faint glow from the surface that shows distinctive features like continental regions, plains, and plateaus. A luminescent halo of oxygen in the atmosphere can also be seen surrounding the planet. More information: Link to paper: Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center Scientists: Brian Wood Naval Research Laboratory) Giada Arney (NASA, GSFC) Br