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The planet Venus has some strange characteristics, but one of its strangest characteristics is its atmosphere. Filled with clouds of sulfuric acid, its thick atmosphere hides the planet’s surface and warms it so much that, although it is further from the sun than Mercury, it is the hottest planet in the solar system. And strangest of all, despite the planet spinning slowly, its atmosphere spins and spins incredibly fast.
A Venusian day, which is a complete rotation of the planet, takes 243 Earth days, but its atmosphere rotates 60 times faster than this, with the top of the clouds revolving around the planet in just four Earth days. And as you look higher in the atmosphere, the rotation becomes faster. This phenomenon, called super rotation, was first discovered in the 1960s, but until now, scientists have been puzzled over its cause.
The planet Venus NASA / JPL
Now, a team of astronomers from the Japan Institute of Space Science and Astronautics has investigated this mystery using data from the Akatsuki spacecraft, also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter. Launched in 2010, Akatsuki was supposed to orbit around Venus in 2010, but it struggled and ended up orbiting the sun for five years. But eventually, it managed to enter a highly elliptical orbit around Venus in 2015, and has been collecting data about the planet using its cameras ever since.
Akatsuki collects ultraviolet and infrared images, and it was these that allowed scientists to see in detail the differences in temperature in the atmosphere between the equator and the poles. The sun’s heat warms the day side of the planet, creating atmospheric tidal waves due to the temperature difference between the night side. And these thermal tides push the atmosphere around the planet, causing it to spin rapidly. But this effect is more pronounced at higher latitudes, as well as being more pronounced at the poles.
So, there are two systems in place here to move heat around the planet: a circulation system that pushes heat from the equator to the poles, plus the super rotation that transports heat from the day side of the planet to its side. night.
However, these findings are not only relevant to Venus. They could also be used to understand other exoplanets. “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,” said lead researcher Takeshi Horinouchi of Hokkaido University. it’s a statement.
The findings are published in the journal Science.
