All articles tagged with #venus
Mercury becomes readily visible for a short time after sunset, lining up with Venus and Jupiter in the evening sky. Mercury is about magnitude -1.1 and roughly 6° above the western horizon; Jupiter shines high in eastern Gemini at magnitude -1.9, with Venus (magnitude -3.9) between them. To spot Mercury, draw a line from Jupiter through Venus toward the horizon. Sunset is around 8:17 PM and sunrise about 5:37 AM (local time).
On December 15, 1970, the Soviet lander Venera 7 became the first object to transmit from the surface of another planet, delivering about 23 minutes of data before its batteries overheated in Venus’s ~475°C heat and 90 atm pressure; a misfired parachute left the antenna poorly oriented, masking the success until a later tape review confirmed the surface transmission via temperature telemetry. Venus’s extreme environment has limited long-duration landers, a pattern the Venera program confirmed with successive missions, while future Venus exploration emphasizes orbiters and short descent probes (e.g., DAVINCI, EnVision, VERITAS) rather than long-lived landers.
Preliminary modelling presented at the EGU General Assembly suggests Venus-like, CO₂-dominated atmospheres on rocky exoplanets could be about twice as common as Earth-like worlds with oceans, though the results are not yet peer-reviewed and observational confirmation is lacking. Venus is the nearest planetary reference point, but it remains underexplored due to data gaps and shifting science priorities; confirming exoplanet Venus-like atmospheres will require future missions and more capable telescopes, with biases toward short-period planets complicating detection.
Look west after sunset on May 21 to spot a crescent Moon near the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44) in Cancer, with Jupiter nearby to the lower right and Venus and Mercury forming a diagonal line beyond; Mercury will be very close to the horizon, so a clear view is needed. Binoculars will reveal the Beehive cluster, and a small telescope can show lunar craters along the terminator as the Moon drifts away and sets in the early hours of May 22.
On May 20, 2026, Venus in Cancer brings a soft, homey energy that favors five signs: Cancer (Moon + Venus boost love and mood), Libra (career momentum and polished aura), Taurus (easy emotional expression in writing), Scorpio (vacation planning and mental refresh), and Aquarius (self-care and wellness take priority).
In March 1982, the Soviet Venera 13 lander survived 127 minutes on Venus—nearly four times its 32-minute design life—enduring 457°C heat and 89 atm pressure to return two color panoramas of flat basaltic rock under an orange sky and gather surface and atmospheric data; this long-lived surface mission remains one of humanity’s clearest records of Venus, and no surface mission has succeeded since Vega 1985.
From 18 to 21 May 2026, a thin crescent Moon will meet Venus and Jupiter after sunset in the western sky, giving a three-body view that culminates in the Venus–Jupiter conjunction on 9 June; keep a clear western horizon and avoid looking at the Sun. The Moon will continue waxing toward a full Moon on 31 May 2026, a monthly blue Moon; if you observe or photograph the alignment, share your pics with Sky at Night.
The Soviet Venera landers remain on Venus’ surface, enduring 460°C heat, 90-bar pressure and sulfuric acid, and their 1975–1982 photos are the only surface images humanity has taken of a world other than Mars. A 2025 study suggests several probes are still recognisable as machines, turning Venus into a new kind of cultural heritage and fueling renewed interest as future missions (NASA’s DAVINCI, ESA’s EnVision, India’s Shukrayaan-1) may image them from orbit or descent, potentially revealing the sites where they lie.
On May 18, Venus will appear alongside a slender crescent Moon in the western sky after sunset. The Moon will be brighter than Venus (magnitude about -7.1 vs -4.0) because of its larger apparent size, though they’re not physically close; they’ll be roughly 3 degrees apart (about one-third of a fist at arm’s length). Venus’ evening visibility is improving in May, with the planet setting around 10:50 p.m. local time, and the close pairing offers a striking twilight sight for skywatchers.
Radar data from NASA’s Magellan mission confirms a giant underground lava tube beneath Venus near Nyx Mons, with a 0.6-mile opening, a roof at least 490 feet thick, and a chamber over 1,230 feet high—evidence of an extensive subsurface volcanic network that could become a target for future Venus missions like EnVision and VERITAS.
Astronomers using data from JAXA's Akatsuki probe identify the largest hydraulic jump in the solar system, where turbulence in Venus's lower cloud layer triggers a strong updraft that lofts sulfuric acid vapor into the upper clouds, creating a giant, slow-moving cloud front.
Space.com reports that the May 16, 2026 new moon will bring dark skies ideal for observing the Milky Way’s core, with Venus bright after sunset and Mars and Saturn rising near dawn as Jupiter remains visible after sunset. The article guides skygazers to seek dark locations away from light pollution and to use tools like Stellarium or Star Walk 2 to navigate the sky and even photograph the Milky Way.
A rare Moon–Venus conjunction will light up the night sky this week, with Venus appearing close to the Moon and visible to the naked eye. To catch it, look toward the western horizon after sunset (or toward the eastern horizon before sunrise, depending on your location); binoculars can help you see the pairing more clearly. Check local sunset times and weather for the best view.
Scientists have identified a planetary-scale hydraulic jump—driven by a Kelvin wave—in Venus’s thick CO2-sulfuric acid atmosphere that forms a 3,700-mile-wide cloud wall racing around the planet every few days, faster than Venus’s rotation. This cross-scale coupling links large-scale winds to localized vertical motion, a mechanism missing from current global circulation models and potentially key to understanding Venus’s extreme super-rotation. The finding reshapes how researchers model Venus’s climate and points to updates ahead of upcoming missions such as DAVINCI, VERITAS, and EnVision.
Scientists show that Venus’s 30-mile-high sulfuric acid clouds are generated by the solar system’s largest hydraulic jump, a vertical updraft triggered by a planet-wide eastward Kelvin wave that lifts sulfuric acid vapor to about 50 km, creating a massive cloud bank. The finding, based on new modeling, represents the first observed hydraulic jump on a planet beyond Earth and was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets.