Cloud Patterns on Venus

Detailed pictures of cloud cover on other planets are hard to come by

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This picture was taken by the Galileo spacecraft using its solid state imaging system. This system was originally a spare for the telescope flown on Voyager, but with many modifications. The camera used eight different filtered bands from 350 to 1100 nm. (Visible light is between 400 and 700 nanometers.)[1][2]

Even though Venus is farther away from the sun than Mercury, it is actually hotter. This is because of a runaway greenhouse effect. This is because the majority of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide.

Higher up in the atmosphere Venus is a lot like Earth. This is because hydrogen and oxygen are lighter and rise up. At 50-60 kilometers from the surface the air pressure is even close to that of Earth’s. Although we would have to deal with winds up to 360 kilometers per hour. Even with this there are no bands or storms we can see easily, unlike Jupiter or Saturn. [3]

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