The European Space Agency has seen a lot of clouds as it celebrates on April 11 the Venus Express' first year orbiting Earth's closest planetary neighbor. But the probe has been able to gather new data on the clouds, atmosphere and weather of Venus.
The probe has been studying how oxygen causes the planet to glow like a "space lantern" on its night side. Oxygen, although rare on Venus, breaks off from carbon dioxide molecules when hit by ultraviolet light during daytime on Venus. At night the atoms rise and combine into O2 and emit light. These two false-color views show the planet's night-time glow.
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