Parker Solar Probe Captured Images of Venus on its way to the Sun - Universe Today

Last summer, the Parker Solar Probe flew past Venus on its way to fly closer to the Sun.

In a bit of a surprise, one of the spacecraft’s cameras, the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, or WISPR, captured a striking image of the planet’s nightside from 7,693 miles (12380 km) away.

The surprise of the image was that WISPR – a visible light camera – seemingly captured the Venus’ surface in infrared light.

Wood added that the image was similar to those taken by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft, which is currently studying Venus, and includes cameras that can capture light at near-infrared wavelengths.

My cleaned and colored (subtly) version of the Parker Solar Probe image of Venus, made from data acquired in July 2020.

At Venus, the camera detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow — light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside.

This surprise observation sent the WISPR team back to the lab to measure the instrument’s sensitivity to infrared light.

To test it out, he WISPR team planned a set of similar observations of the Venusian nightside during Parker Solar Probe’s latest Venus flyby – which just occurred on Feb.