Overview

Venus Express has been making the most detailed study of the planet’s thick and complex atmosphere to date. The latest findings highlight the features that make Venus unique in the Solar System and provide fresh clues as to how the planet is - despite everything - a more Earth-like planetary neighbour than one could have imagined.


Venus: a more Earth-like planetary neighbour


Interaction between Venus and the solar windVenus: Earth’s twin planet?

ESA’s Venus Express has revealed Venus as never before. For the first time, scientists are able to investigate from the top of its atmosphere, down nearly to the surface. They have shown it to be a planet of surprises that may once have been more Earth-like, and still is, to a certain extent.

Latest Venus Express results



Temperatures on Venus


Vertical profiles of pressure on Earth and VenusThe unexpected temperature profile of Venus’s atmosphere

Venus has a rich and complicated atmosphere - the densest of all the rocky planets – which is the key to understanding the planet itself. Venus Express, designed to perform an extensive investigation of the atmosphere, has revealed surprising details about its temperature structure.


Venus' restless atmosphere


South polar dipole mosaicThe restless atmosphere of Venus

Venus Express has studied the true extent of Venus’s restless atmosphere. This includes the planet’s glow, its highly variable south polar vortex and the dynamic upper atmosphere, different from what is seen on any other rocky planet of the Solar System.


Atmosphere and solar wind


Venus loses hydrogen through the wakeCaught in the wind from the Sun

Venus Express has exposed the true extent to which the Sun strips away the atmosphere of Venus. This process could be an important contribution to the way the planet has evolved to become so different from the Earth.


Climate and Evolution


Venus Express detects evidence of lightningClimate and Evolution

Today, Venus is a hellish place of high temperatures and crushing air pressure. Venus Express is showing that this was not always the case. Instead, some time in the past, Venus was probably much more Earth-like and contained large quantities of water.


Last update: 28 November 2007