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Experts Puzzled By Bright Spot On Venus

Posted by Soulskill on from the who-is-throwing-things-at-our-planets dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus, first identified by US amateur astronomer Frank Melillo on 19 July and later confirmed by the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft. 'I have seen bright spots before but this one is an exceptionally bright and quite intense area,' says Melillo. The bright spot has started to expand since its first appearance, being spread by winds in Venus' thick atmosphere. Scientists are unsure as to what is causing the spot. 'An eruption would have to be quite energetic to get a cloud this high,' said Dr. Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin. Furthermore, at a latitude of 50 degrees south, the spot lies outside the region of known volcanoes on Venus. Another potential source for the bright spot are charged particles from the Sun interacting with Venus' atmosphere. It's also possible that atmospheric turbulence may have caused bright material to become concentrated in one area. 'Right now, I think it's anybody's guess,' adds Limaye."

7 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Just like Jupiter by mknewman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Looks like another possible comet hit to me. Introduce new volatles into the atmosphere and you'll get something similar.

    1. Re:Just like Jupiter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      It looks like it, but if you want to become a successful guesser you need to take into account the prior probability, which in this case is tiny. So, no.

      To make a parallel, a dead rat on the street in NYC may look like it was crushed by an elephant, but that wouldn't be my guess.

  2. There is spacecraft in orbit around Venus. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ESA Venus Express is in orbit around Venus. Perhaps they can shed more light on this.

  3. Re:Random Venusian Fact by mrsurb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd much prefer to be called mercurial, martial or jovial than venereal! Or even a lunatic...

  4. Asteroids, metoers? by theolein · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The dark spot on Jupiter is almost certainly a comet, asteroid or meteor. While I doubt that the higher tides on the US coast have anything to do with it, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the bright spot on Venus wasn't also due to an asteroidal collision. Venus has a very thick atmosphere and a large collision would probably leave a mark in the atmosphere due to kicked up dust etc that would be observable for a while until it dissipated in the atmosphere.

    More importantly, the odds of two planets in the system getting hit by objects large enough to make large marks is pretty small, and that makes me worry if there isn't some local debris cloud from the Oort cloud or Kuiper belt that is passing through the system currently. Does anyone know?

    1. Re:Asteroids, metoers? by Sperbels · · Score: 2, Interesting

      and that makes me worry if there isn't some local debris cloud from the Oort cloud or Kuiper belt that is passing through the system currently. Does anyone know?

      No, but such an event would be huge news and I'm sure we'd know about it by now. The people who insist that extinction events occur regularly due to some astronomical cycle would be screaming their heads off insisting that Sol's companion star has returned to pelt the earth with comets.

  5. Re:Random Venusian Fact by hawk · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Both of those terms are odd choices for a reference to Perelandra . . .

    hawk