Revealing new Venus image out of this world

EUROPEAN scientists yesterday released the first photos of Venus’s south pole from the orbiting Venus Express spacecraft - revealing a swirling twist of cloud that closely resembles cloud formations around the more familiar north pole

The image, taken from a distance of roughly 124,000 miles and released by the European Space Agency (ESA), shows pale yellow clouds ribbed with darker spirals and a dark vortex.

“We can see there is a twister here that is similar to that which we know from the north pole,” said Horst Uwe Keller, who leads the team operating the craft’s wide-angle, multichannel camera - one of seven instruments aboard the Venus Express.

The images were taken on Wednesday, one day after Venus Express went into orbit around the planet. ESA said they were the first pictures of the planet’s south pole, which is turned away from Earth.

ESA scientists will run more thorough tests, designed to help researchers better understand the atmosphere and climate of Earth’s neighbour.

As the spacecraft tightens its orbit, scientists expect it to capture more detailed and revealing images of Venus.

Scientists hope to be able to determine how clouds of sulphuric acid that swathe the planet were formed and pinpoint the cause of ultra high-speed winds that send them swirling.

The €220 million mission aims to study the greenhouse effect on Venus, where the atmosphere is extremely hot and dense.

Venus Express was launched on November 9 in Kazakhstan. The mission is to last 500 days, with the possibility of another 500.