Venus Express
Videos
Venus Express was the first Venus exploration mission of the European Space Agency. Launched in November 2005, it arrived at Venus in April 2006 and began continuously sending back science data from i
Venus Express in orbit
Ultraviolet picture (with arbitrary color) of Venus. The clouds betray the extremely fast winds at mid levels of the atmosphere, which circumnavigate the globe in just four days, August 2008
Ultraviolet picture colored to draw out highlights in the clouds, August 2008
The daylight side shown in visible light and the night side in infrared, September 2008
Akatsuki (spacecraft)
Videos
Akatsuki, also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter and Planet-C, was a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency space probe tasked with studying the atmosphere of Venus. It was launched aboard an H-IIA 202 r
Venus Express
…1 October 2012: A cold layer, where dry ice may exists, was found in the atmosphere of Venus. November 2025: Analysis of data from Venus Express and Akatsuki show that diurnal thermal tides are the primary driver of transporting momentum toward the tops of Venus's clouds, contributing substantially to the…
A model of the spacecraft Akatsuki
Configuration of Akatsuki spacecraft (left) and a photograph of the spacecraft with the solar array paddles being folded (right)
Schematic of the three-dimensional observation by Akatsuki
Akatsuki spacecraft prior to launch