 Posted: Sun 18:52, 17 Nov 2013 Post subject: European spacecraft sees strange change in Venus' |
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| European spacecraft sees strange change in Venus' atmosphere
PARIS, June 18 () -- A European spacecraft gathering the most detailed record of cloud motion in the atmosphere of Venus has found the planet's winds are getting faster.The European Space Agency Venus Express has been studying the planet well known for its curious super-rotating atmosphere, which whips around the planet once every four Earth days, while the planet itself only rotates once every 243 Earth days.Venus Express has tracked the movements of distinct cloud features in the cloud tops about 40 miles above the planet's surface for six years to monitor patterns in the long-term global wind speeds,[url=http://www.leedpe.com/]louboutin shoes sale[/url], a release from ESA headquarters in Paris said Tuesday.When the spacecraft arrived at the planet in 2006, average cloud-top wind speeds near the equator were roughly 180 mph,[url=http://www.leedpe.com/]christian louboutin pigalle[/url], but that speed has increased to 250 mph over the course of the Venus Express mission, scientists said."This is an enormous increase in the already high wind speeds known in the atmosphere," lead study author Igor Khatuntsev from the Space Research Institute in Moscow said. "Such a large variation has never before been observed on Venus, and we do not yet understand why this occurred."A paper detailing the findings has been published in the journal Icarus. |
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