Spaceship reveals that the atmosphere of Venus rotates faster than the planet itself

New research led by Takeshi Horinouchi from the University of Hokkaido has revealed that the super-rotation of Venus’s atmosphere is held close to the equator by atmospheric tides that have been formed due to solar cooling on the night side of the planet and warming. on your day side. However, atmospheric turbulence and various other waves have a stronger effect.

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The spacecraft reveals that the atmosphere of Venus rotates faster than the planet itself

According to SciTech Daily, the planet Venus rotates very slowly, taking 243 Earth days to rotate around the planet’s axis. However, despite this, Venus’s atmosphere actually turns west 60 times faster than Venus itself.

This increases with altitude and it takes only four Earth days to rotate around the entire planet at the top of the cloud layer.

Due to this super rotation, the fast-moving atmosphere is forced to transport heat from the Venus side to the night side, reducing the temperature differences between the two hemispheres.

Horinouchi has said that “ever since super rotation was discovered in the 1960s, however, the mechanism behind its formation and maintenance has been a long-standing mystery.”

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A new type of approach has been developed.

Horinouchi and colleagues at the Institute for Space Science and Astronautics developed a precise method of trying to track clouds and, from there, deduce wind speeds from the collected images. These are provided by infrared and ultraviolet cameras on the Akatsuki spacecraft that began orbiting Venus in December 2015.

Horinouchi explained that “the group noted for the first time that atmospheric temperature differences between low and high latitudes are as small as cannot be explained without circulation through the latitudes. Since such circulation should alter the distribution of the wind and Weakening the super rotation peak also implies there is another mechanism that reinforces and maintains the observed wind distribution. ”

Further analysis also revealed that maintenance is being sustained by the thermal tide, which then provides acceleration when it comes to low altitudes.

Previous studies have shown that atmospheric turbulence and waves can also provide acceleration. However, current research claims they work the opposite way to slow down rotation at a very low altitude.

“Their findings uncovered the factors that maintain super rotation while suggesting a double circulation system that effectively transports heat around the world: the southern circulation that slowly transports heat to the poles and the super rotation that rapidly transports heat. towards the night side of the planet, “SciTech Daily has said.

“Our study could help to better understand atmospheric systems on tidal-blocked exoplanets whose side is always facing the central stars, which is similar to Venus having a very long solar day,” Horinouchi added.

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