EYES TO THE SKY February 22 – March 7, 2022 Leading the Sun at dawn: eye-popping Venus, our solar system’s hottest planet

Image taken in May 2016 by Akatsuki, a Japanese robotic research spacecraft orbiting Venus. Venus was captured in infrared light showing a surprising amount of atmospheric structure on its night side. The vertical orange terminator stripe between night and day is so wide because light is so diffused by Venus’ thick atmosphere. APOD Picture of the Day June 7, 2016. Image Credit and Copyright: ISAS/JAXA

 Planet Venus, an orb of white fire gleaming in darkness, rises above the southeastern horizon in early dawn. Venus is the third brightest object in Earth’s sky, next to the Sun and moon. Similar in size to Earth and our closest planetary neighbor, its brilliance is not to be attributed to its proximity. As described by scientists at EarthSky.org,  “Venus is bright … because it’s blanketed by highly reflective clouds. The clouds in the atmosphere of Venus contain droplets of sulfuric acid, as well as acidic crystals suspended in a mixture of gases. Light bounces easily off the smooth surfaces of these spheres and crystals. Sunlight bouncing from these clouds is a big part of the reason that Venus is so bright.”

The magnificent 2016 Akatsuki image, above, captured what is described in NASA literature as a world perpetually shrouded in thick clouds that “whip around the planet at about 200 miles per hour (100 meters per second).” The planet “has a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide … (and the) yellowish clouds of sulfuric acid trap heat, causing a runaway greenhouse effect. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun. Surface temperatures on Venus are about 900 degrees Fahrenheit https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/overview/

NASA continues, “Smothered in thick clouds, Venus’ surface is usually shrouded from sight. But in two recent flybys of the planet, the Parker Solar Probe used its Wide-Field Imager, or WISPR, to image the entire nightside in wavelengths of the visible spectrum – the type of light that the human eye can see – and extending into the near-infrared.” Click here for more

“NASA’s Parker Solar Probe WHISPR has taken its first visible light images of the surface of Venus from space.” NASA release February 9, 2022. On left: WISPR image from Parker Solar Probe’s fourth flyby of Venus aligns with, on right, topographical maps from NASA’s Magellan mission. The Magellan mission mapped the surface of Venus with radar in the 1990s. The images gave the first global view of what is below Venus’ thick clouds. Credit: NASA/APL/NRL (left), Magellan Team/JPL/USGS (right)

The WISPER images reveal a faint glow from the surface that shows distinctive features like continental regions, plains, and plateaus. A luminescent halo of oxygen in the atmosphere can also be seen surrounding the planet.

To observe Venus before dawn and until half an hour before sunrise, look to the southeast. Sunrise is at 6:40am on February 23; 6:21am March 7. Seek out a location with a view to the southeast by 5am to observe Venus, Mars and Saturn in the coming days.

Planets Venus and Mars in the dawn sky during the timeframe of this post. Mercury, not shown, is located to the left, east, of Mars, close above the skyline. On the 27th, Mercury is below and to the left of the crescent moon. Binoculars improve visibility of Mars and Mercury in civil twilight. Diagram courtesy StarDate.org. published with permission

The moon and Venus may be visible until about 6:15am. Venus -4.61 magnitude on February 23, decreasing to -4.51m on March 7. Mars -1.30m, Mercury 0.00m. If you plan to adventure out before dawn to see Venus rise, know that she’s up earlier everyday: February 23 at 4:20am. Where views are obstructed, expect Venus later by half an hour or more.

Immerse yourself in Venus exploration: go directly to NASA for more, including films.

Judy Isacoff