Will the Real Planet Venus Please Stand Up!

Originally posted by johnlear

...Gentlemen I think we have ourselves a planet. One more thing. Any pictures of Venus will be henceforth be rendered in yellow and orange. That will make ‘em think it hotter than you know where...”

"Yes! And we will manufacture every telescope and set of binoculars under the sun to make Venus appear yellow/orange, and will engineer all human DNA so as to make Venus appear yellow/orange to the naked eyes of all humanity! My, we're clever!"

You should write fiction, Mr. Lear. Oh, wait....

[edit on 9-6-2007 by Gozer]

Originally posted by Gozer

"Yes! And we will manufacture every telescope and set of binoculars under the sun to make Venus appear yellow/orange, and will engineer all human DNA so as to make Venus appear yellow/orange to the naked eyes of all humanity! My, we're clever!"

Good point Gozer. I should have specified all photos of the surface will henceforth be rendered in yellow and orange.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Here`s a shot of Venus taken by a telescope. At least I think so, as my French is very rusty.

"Les nuages de l'atmosphère dense de Vénus sont bien visibles. Dates de prise de vue : 8, 9, 10, 13 et 14 février 2004."

www.astrosurf.com...

Now compare the atmospheric detail in that shot (You can clearly see the cloud cover changing.) with the smooth features of the Messenger image.

The pictures on the French page were taken with a UV filter. The cloud cover is much more pronounced in UV.

The Messenger image was taken at a distance of 10.3 million miles from Venus, through just 1 of the probe's 11 color filters, with an imager that's designed for imaging at orbital distances.

Yes reading more on the 'Messenger' spacecraft, it was sort of a bonus freebie to perform some limited imaging of Venus.

The spacecraft used the planet as an transit gravity assist on its' way to Mercury, its mission planet. The orbital transit maneuver was performed in 2006 and finally again in 2007.

The images that were shown I believe were prior to the 2006 fly-by. Here is a graphic better illus. the orbital mechanics of such a mission.

Originally posted by nataylor
The Messenger image was taken at a distance of 10.3 million miles from Venus, through just 1 of the probe's 11 color filters, with an imager that's designed for imaging at orbital distances.

Yes that particular image was far from the planet, but then 'Messenger' is expected to pass as close as 340km from the surface of Venus in this fly-by, and to take 600+ images of the planet.

This time around, Messenger will scrutinise Venus with its full suite of seven instruments, and is scheduled to take more than 630 pictures.

and...

Messenger is now adjusting its trajectory by flying past Venus. The craft will fly 340 kilometres above the planet's surface, only 90 km above the planet's atmosphere, with its closest approach at 2308 GMT today.

space.newscientist.com...

Where are these images of Venus? Also interesting to note that the Venus Express is also in orbit about Venus at the same same as Messenger performs the orbital maneuver.


[edit on 6/9/2007 by greatlakes]

Originally posted by greatlakes
Where are these images of Venus?

That`s a very good question indeed.

The flyby only happened 4 days ago. It takes time to transmit all that data and process it.

I'd guess we see the first images in a week or so.

From the offical Messenger web site:

“We will be monitoring recorder playback beginning June 7 to make sure all of the files and images are fully downlinked. Next stop, Mercury on January 14, 2008!”

So they only started receiving data 2 days ago. It's not like there's a DSL connection to the spacecraft. It's takes a lot of time to transmit that data.

Originally posted by nataylor
The flyby only happened 4 days ago. It takes time to transmit all that data and process it.

I'd guess we see the first images in a week or so.

True that, however, if you look at the last fly-by by the Messenger spacecraft (s/c), it was in 2006. This particular fly-by did not result to being as close as the 2007 one (211 miles), it was as close as 1860 miles from the surface of Venus. But yet we still only see the images of Venus by the s/c when it was 10,300,000 miles away...?

The first flyby happened when Venus was in solar conjunction (ie, the Sun was between Earth and Venus). They went several weeks without contact with the spacecraft because of that. It wasn't an ideal opportunity to gather data.

Originally posted by nataylor
The pictures on the French page were taken with a UV filter. The cloud cover is much more pronounced in UV.

The Messenger image was taken at a distance of 10.3 million miles from Venus, through just 1 of the probe's 11 color filters, with an imager that's designed for imaging at orbital distances.

Thanks Nataylor. That explains a lot. I tried to find similar photos of Earth to see how it would show up with a UV filter, but I haven`t been able to find any. How would these Venusian clouds look to the human eye?

Originally posted by greatlakes
Where are these images of Venus?

Thought that would be obvious... they are BEING PROCESSED as we speak. Most likely NSA at Langley?

:shk:

Also interesting to note that the Venus Express is also in orbit about Venus at the same same as Messenger performs the orbital maneuver.

Was that what they were shooting at with that Laser Cannon

[edit on 10-6-2007 by zorgon]

Originally posted by nataylor
The first flyby happened when Venus was in solar conjunction (ie, the Sun was between Earth and Venus). They went several weeks without contact with the spacecraft because of that. It wasn't an ideal opportunity to gather data.

Ya know... its interesting how there is always an excuse... ideal it may not have been, but surely they got SOMETHING?

The end result is we get to see but a small portion of the images. Happened with Lunar Oebiter, happened with Clementine... I don't see things changing

Originally posted by bridas
Thanks Nataylor. That explains a lot. I tried to find similar photos of Earth to see how it would show up with a UV filter, but I haven`t been able to find any. How would these Venusian clouds look to the human eye?

Here's a bunch of colorized pictures of the Earth in UV. You can desaturate the pictures and you'll get a good idea of how it could compare to Venus.

visibleearth.nasa.gov...

I posted a visible-light picture of venus earlier in the tread.

Originally posted by zorgon
Ya know... its interesting how there is always an excuse... ideal it may not have been, but surely they got SOMETHING?

The end result is we get to see but a small portion of the images. Happened with Lunar Oebiter, happened with Clementine... I don't see things changing

That Venus was in solar conjunction is a pretty valid excuse. They knew there would be another flyby, when Venus wasn't in solar conjunction.

In the coming weeks, I think we'll see some spectacular images from MEssenger. Have you seen the pictures of Earth it took? There're awesome. But of course you'll say they've been doctored so it doesn't really matter. There's no satisfying someone like you.

Originally posted by nataylor
Here's a bunch of colorized pictures of the Earth in UV. You can desaturate the pictures and you'll get a good idea of how it could compare to Venus.

visibleearth.nasa.gov...

Thank you. It`s good to be able to do a comparison.

Originally posted by nataylor
The flyby only happened 4 days ago. It takes time to transmit all that data and process it.

I'd guess we see the first images in a week or so.

Or...

The flyby only happened 4 days ago. It takes time to transmit all that data and photoshop it.

I'd guess we see the first images in a week or so.

[edit on 11/6/07 by thebox]

I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't change the words in my post, lest someone think I actually said that. I won't won't put words in your mouth, please don't put them in mine.

Originally posted by nataylor
I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't change the words in my post, lest someone think I actually said that. I won't won't put words in your mouth, please don't put them in mine.

My apologies. I've tweaked it a little...

[edit on 11/6/07 by thebox]

Originally posted by nataylor

It's not like there's a DSL connection to the spacecraft. It's takes a lot of time to transmit that data.

Yes I understand. Watapi said about 6 seconds. Tell me nataylor where exactly is the data transmitted to? Thanks.