Planet Venus in Ultraviolet: Japan's Venus Climate Orbiter | JAXA

Planet Venus in Ultraviolet: Japan's Venus Climate Orbiter  | JAXA

    

Why is Venus so different from Earth? To help find out, Japan launched the Akatsuki spacecraft which entered orbit around Venus late in 2015 after an unplanned five-year adventure around the inner Solar System. Even though Akatsuki was past its original planned lifetime, the spacecraft and instruments were operating so well that much of its original mission was reinstated. Also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki's instruments investigated unknowns about Earth's sister planet, including whether volcanoes are still active, whether lightning occurs in the dense atmosphere, and why wind speeds greatly exceed the planet's rotation speed. 

In this image taken by Akatsuki's UVI camera, the day-side of Venus is seen shown with planet-scale V-shaped cloud pattern. The image displays three ultraviolet colors and indicates a dip in the relative abundance of sulfur dioxide shown in faint blue. Analyses of Akatsuki images and data has shown, among other discoveries, that Venus has equatorial jet similar to Earth's jet stream.

Akatsuki (あかつき, 暁, "Dawn"), also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO) and Planet-C, is a Japanese (JAXA) spacecraft tasked to study the atmosphere of Venus. By using five different cameras, working at several wavelengths, Akatsuki is studying the stratification of the atmosphere, atmospheric dynamics, and cloud physics. It was launched aboard an H-IIA 202 rocket on May 20, 2010.

Image Credit & Copyright: JAXA/ISAS/DARTS/Planet-C Project Team

Processing Credit & Copyright: Dr. Mehmet Hakan

Release Date: June 23, 2023

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