Venus Express |
Venus Express |
Apr 12 2005, 06:56 PM
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4405 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
If all goes well, Venus Express will be a major topic for discussion in this forum a year from now. Does anyone know how good the surface coverage will be from VIRTIS and VMC? My understanding is that VIRTIS will obtain low resolution multispectral maps, and that VMC will, in addition to cloud monitoring, have one channel that can see the surface, but I don't know at what resolution or at what quality. It will be nice to have some non-radar images of Venus' surface besides the Venera snapshots and the shadowy images from Earth and Galileo's NIMS.
Ted -------------------- |
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Nov 7 2005, 03:54 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 |
Besides, the other intrigating thing is that Venus sluggishly rotates on its axis once every 243 Earth days, while it orbits the Sun every 225 days - its day is longer than its year!
On the other hand, Venus rotates retrograde, or "backwards," spinning in the opposite direction of its orbit around the Sun. From its surface, the Sun would seem to rise in the west and set in the east. The other odd thing is that its Equatorial Inclination to Orbit is 177.3 degrees. By comparison, it is: 7.56 x Earth. That is its north pole is almost pointing to the south pole. These are at least one of the oddies things that I would like to understand: Why does the day is longer than a year? Why the planet rotates on backwards? Rodolfo |
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Nov 7 2005, 04:03 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
QUOTE (RNeuhaus @ Nov 7 2005, 10:54 AM) Besides, the other intrigating thing is that Venus sluggishly rotates on its axis once every 243 Earth days, while it orbits the Sun every 225 days - its day is longer than its year! On the other hand, Venus rotates retrograde, or "backwards," spinning in the opposite direction of its orbit around the Sun. From its surface, the Sun would seem to rise in the west and set in the east. The other odd thing is that its Equatorial Inclination to Orbit is 177.3 degrees. By comparison, it is: 7.56 x Earth. That is its north pole is almost pointing to the south pole. These are at least one of the oddies things that I would like to understand: Why does the day is longer than a year? Why the planet rotates on backwards? Rodolfo A whomping big celestial impact is my guess. -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Nov 7 2005, 04:26 PM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 |
QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Nov 7 2005, 11:03 AM) Interesting but...why no a moon. After an impact to Venus and that should have a moon like the Earth's case. I thought that the Venus' slow rotation might be caused by a very heavy atmosphere that circulates the planet in the opposite side to its rotation. Or perhaps that is a normal for physics' law since its neigboor planet Mercury rotates around 58 Earth days and orbits around the Sun 88 Earth days. That is more or less a very long day that approach to a "planet of close one year" for both Mercury (less days) and Venus (more days). Rodolfo |
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Nov 7 2005, 04:30 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
QUOTE (RNeuhaus @ Nov 7 2005, 11:26 AM) Interesting but...why no a moon. After an impact to Venus and that should have a moon like the Earth's case. I thought that the Venus' slow rotation might be caused by a very heavy atmosphere that circulates the planet in the opposite side to its rotation. Or perhaps that is a normal for physics' law since its neigboor planet Mercury rotates around 58 Earth days and orbits around the Sun 88 Earth days. That is more or less a very long day that approach to a "planet of close one year" for both Mercury (less days) and Venus (more days). Rodolfo Actually, should a large impact create a moon? My guess is that if Venus did get hit by something massive and powerful enough to practically flip it over, slow down its spin rate, and have it rotate in the opposite direction of most other major worlds, Venus was lucky enough to have survived intact, forget having a moon in the outcome. Or maybe Venus was hit BY its own moon. -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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