Exploring Venus and Beyond: New Discoveries Await

Scientists from the University of Seville and the University of the Basque Country have led the first detailed study of the discontinuity of Venus's clouds, a gigantic atmosphere wave that may be playing a significant role in the acceleration of Venus's fast-moving atmosphere. The discontinuity was observed non-stop for more than 100 days, and ultraviolet images taken in June by the UVI camera on board the Akatsuki mission suggest that the discontinuity was capable of propagating for a few hours to around 70 km above the surface of Venus. The winds in the high clouds were found to be unusually slow in the first half of 2022, several times slower than the discontinuity itself, which allowed it to propagate to higher altitudes.