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The planet’s atmosphere rotates almost 60 times faster than its surface.
A new study by Japanese scientists solved the mystery of why Venus’s thick atmosphere spins much faster than the planet’s surface. The research results were published in the journal Science.
The surface of Venus, whose size and gravity are similar to those of Earth, is difficult to explore because its sky is completely covered by thick sulfuric acid clouds and the temperature on the planet is 460 degrees centigrade.
It takes 243 Earth days for the surface of Venus to complete a rotation about its axis, while its atmosphere rotates almost 60 times faster than its surface, completing a revolution around the planet every four days. This phenomenon is known as atmospheric super rotation and is also observed on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
To solve that mystery, scientists analyzed ultraviolet images and thermal infrared data from the Akatsuki spacecraft, which has been in Venus since December 2015. Using this data, they managed to track the movements of Venus’ clouds and map the planet’s winds and how heat circulates in the atmosphere.
Previous studies suggested that, to generate this type of rotation, the atmosphere of Venus must have enough angular momentum, the amount of momentum a body has thanks to its spin, to overcome friction with the planet’s surface.
Now researchers discovered that the atmosphere of Venus receives its angular momentum through the thermal tides, which are variations in atmospheric pressure driven by solar warming near the planet’s equator.
“There was a suggestion that the thermal tides could be contributing to the acceleration behind the super rotation, but I think the main assumption was different, so It was a surprise“, said to Space.com is the study’s lead author, Takeshi Horinouchi, a planetary scientist at Hokkaido University in Sapporo.
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