Forecast: 200-mph Acid Winds
The European Space Agency released their first images from the Venus Express mission, including our first view of the south pole.
As reported by the AP’s Melissa Eddy in The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.):
"We can see there is a swirl here that is similar to the one we know from the north pole," said Horst Uwe Keller, who leads the team operating the craft’s wide-angle camera – one of seven instruments aboard the Venus Express.
Using infrared technology that allows the camera to peer though the clouds, scientists hope to be able to determine how the sulfuric acid that swathes the planet was formed, and pinpoint the cause of the high-speed winds that sends it swirling in massive clouds.
The ESA has some really cool images and 3-D videos on their site, too.
