Nighttime weather on Venus revealed for the 1st time - Space.com

What's the weather like at night on Venus.

However, scientists have known very little about what the weather is like at night on Venus.

In a new study, researchers have devised a new way to use infrared sensors on the Japanese Venus climate orbiter Akatsuki, a probe that arrived in orbit around Venus in 2015, to finally reveal what weather is like on the planet at nighttime.

Like Earth, Venus lies in our sun's "habitable zone," has a solid surface and an atmosphere that has weather.

However, while Venus' atmosphere rotates quickly, the planet itself has the slowest rotation of any major planet in our solar system, meaning day and night last quite a long time — about 120 Earth days each. .

Until now, only weather on Venus' "daylight side," has been easily observable because, even in infrared it is difficult to get a clear look at Venus' nightside.

There have been infrared observations of Venus' "nighttime side," but these studies have not been able to clearly show the planet's nighttime weather. .

To explore this mysterious aspect of our neighboring planet, researchers turned to Akatsuki, the first Japanese probe to ever orbit another planet.

The probe is designed to monitor Venus and its weather and has an infrared imager that doesn't need sunlight in order to "see." Despite this design, the imager hasn't been able to capture detailed observations of Venus' nightside.

Using this new method, the researchers think that future studies could reveal new details about weather on other planets like Mars or even our own planet Earth, according to the statement. .

While this work uses existing technology in orbit around Venus, the planet will soon see three new missions arrive that will continue to expand our understanding of Venus and its climate.