This stunning phenomenon is not only incredible to watch, but it provides a unique opportunity for scientific observations of one of our nearest neighboring planets. In an attention-seeking plot, the planet lit its atmosphere in the rays of the sun, forcing the eyes of the Solar Dynamics Observatory of NASA, upon it. This may seem like a pretty common event. The joint study appeared on June 23 in the journal Nature Communications. Venus’s atmosphere is layered, just like that of Mars, or Earth. For instance, some layers may absorb a certain wavelength of light completely, which another might not absorb it at all. A team of scientists then used the picture to watch the backlit planet as it crossed in front of the Sunday.
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A layer in the upper atmosphere around Venus-called the thermosphere-absorbs certain high-energy wavelengths of light. In the ionosphere, a layer created by radiation being absorbed by the atmosphere and creating ions that capture light. And when that time comes, humanity will have its time to shine not just in the light of Sol, but in the light of countless other suns.
In this case, astronomers took pictures of the entire even in several wavelengths of light.
Since the sun emits light in nearly every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum, scientists were able to analyse the images to determine how light filters through each layer of Venus’ atmosphere and more accurately ascertain the molecules and atoms it contains. This information is useful for planning missions to Venus since the molecules can lead to a large amount of the course-altering drag a spacecraft feels.
“Learning more about the composition of the atmosphere is very important for understanding the braking process for spacecraft when they enter the upper atmosphere of the planet, a process called aerobraking”, . “If the atmosphere observed were asymmetric, that could tell us more about how the star is impacting the planet”, said Sabrina Savage, NASA project scientist for Hinode.
Only sides of the atmosphere were visible during the transit, but they were particularly interesting areas. In addition, it reveals that there aren’t any drastic changes from day to night in Venus’s atmosphere. On Earth, these transition areas can host interesting effects in the ionosphere, the data from the Venus transit showed that these two transition areas have virtually nothing distinct from one another. All that our telescopes really see is a faint dip in a star’s light as the shadow of a planet flutters across its path. Because Venus was between Earth and the sun, we could only see the night side of the planet – but around the edges, where the team was observing the atmosphere, is the edge between night and day – sunrise on one side and sunset on the other.
Studying the atmosphere of Venus adds to the database of information we have about atmospheres, which in turn could help study exoplanet atmospheres.
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Well, yes. Yet, it is a very rare occurrence for us to be perfectly aligned with the planet so as to perfectly observe the whole of the planet upon the yellowy light background provided by our favorite star.
