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To stone’s throw in astronomical terms, and within the reach of any telescope, is Venus. In particular is located at an average distance of “only” 40 million km, which it pales, for example, compared to 778 million which is Jupiter. But even being so close to us is still hiding many secrets . Several space missions will travel up there and try to study its atmosphere and its surface. But still today it is possible to make new discoveries with the observations made up to now.
In fact, a group of researchers led by Javier Peralta , a researcher at the Space Agency Japan (JAXA), have just announced the discovery of something that reminds of a great “wall of clouds” in the atmosphere of Venus, in an article recently published in “Geophysical Research Letters”. After analyzing the data collected by the probe japanese Akatsuki between 2016 and 2018, have detected a distortion of up to 7.500 miles long revolves around the planet at a speed of 328 kilometers per hour, completing one full turn each to 4.9 days.
“If something like that existed on Earth, would a front surface of the scale of the planet”, has been said to “Sciencealert.com” Pedro Machado, a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal. “It’s amazing”.
the structure of The atmosphere of Venus, from August 2016 (bottom left) and its evolution until 2018 – Planet-C Project Team, NASA, IRTF
that Is to say, Venus is not only a planet exotic because u n global warming unchecked has elevated its average temperature until the 471ºC and multiplied by 90 the pressure of the atmosphere, in comparison with the earth. It is also because, for some reason, there is a front that appears and disappears and that covers a large extension of the planet.
A structure never before seen until now
According to the data of the researchers, this structure leads popping up at least since 1983, and it occurs at low altitude, in comparison with other similar phenomena, ranging from 47,5 to the 56.5 miles. Therefore, they believe that it is the first time I seen something like that in the entire solar system.
To understand why is this structure the question arises, how is the strange atmosphere of Venus. To start is 100 times thicker than earth’s, is composed in large part of carbon dioxide and covered by a layer of sulfuric acid clouds. In addition, the enormous temperatures generated winds of 200 to almost 400 kilometers per hour, which allow an atmosphere rotate 60-times faster the body to rock the planet: this phenomenon is known as super-rotation.
These extreme conditions lead to phenomena that are very strange . The shock of the atmosphere against the relief generates sometimes fronts arc-shaped and at other times the winds create distortions in the shape of Y.
A new and extreme weather phenomenon
In this case, the data of the probe Akatsuki was able to see another of these atmospheric waves, arc-shaped, but is characterized by occur at a low height. This shows that the distortion is in a deep layer of the atmosphere, and that your origins are different from those of other similar phenomena.
“This disruption of atmospheric is a new weather phenomenon never seen on other planets “, has explained Javier Peralta. “That’s why, it is still difficult to give a physical explanation reliable”.
The finding of this “wall of clouds” has been made possible after cbombinar a considerable amount of observations from multiple instruments. On the other hand, the numerical simulations carried out by researchers have shown that the disruption has many features in common with some gravity waves that form in the Earth, and that are produced in clouds and oceans as a result of the influence of gravity .
The most interesting thing is that studying the causes of this new phenomenon would provide information on why the atmosphere of Venus rotates so fast, or perhaps how the topography of the planet influence the dynamics of their winds. For that reason, this team of scientists will continue to observe the mysterious wall of clouds.
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