Stunning images snapped by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe have given the very first visible light glimpse of Venus’ red-hot surface, revealing continents, plains and plateaus on the inhospitable volcanic world.
Peering beneath the thick and toxic Venusian clouds with the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) instrument, NASA scientists spotted a bevy of geological features lit up in the faint glow of Venus’ nightside surface, alongside a luminescent halo of oxygen in the planet’s atmosphere.
The groundbreaking images, taken during the Parker Solar Probe’s fourth flyby of Venus on the way to the sun, will give scientists valuable insights into the scorching planet’s geology and minerals, and they could reveal more about how Venus became so inhospitable while life on Earth flourished. NASA scientists published their analysis of the images Feb. 9 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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