Venus may be enveloped in a thick , choke atmosphere , but this atmosphere is also shrouded in something else : secret . For the retiring 50 days , scientists have struggled to explain the presence of a humongous dark body structure determine like a “ Y ” in the hellish planet ’s skies . Now , astronomers think they have gathered data that could offer an account for the mystical lineament ’s ancestry with the discovery of a new type of atmospherical waving in the solar organization . The subject has been published inGeophysical Research Letters .
When we peer at Venus from Earth , its aerofoil features are obscured by its extremely heavy , CO2 - rich atmospheric state . This thick cloak may seem unremarkable at first glance , but switch to see it in UV wavelengths and some interesting features begin to appear . Most notably , a darkY - shaped swarm structurethat virtually wraps around the integral planet can be seen with the stemsitting atop Venus ’ equator .
When scientists first spot this so - yell Y feature , they proposed that it was likely just an assemblage of cloudsswept up by the wind . However , notice gathered in 1973 suggested something more complex was at play since it not only seemed to be travelling like a individual entity , but also incite at a unlike speed to its environment .
Further observations let out that the lineament ’s dark morphology is attributable to the presence of acompoundthat absorbs UV radiation , although what this is still remains a mystery . By following the social movement of the cloud , scientists bring out that the Venusian standard atmosphere is in a state of “ super - rotary motion ” with the air spinning around the satellite in just four Earth days , compared to the 243 it takes to rotate on its bloc . With wind instrument travelling at up to60 timesthe speed of the planet ’s rotary motion , Venus is the most extreme hump vitrine of super - rotation .
Based on these data , scientists chew over that the cloud could be the final result of some variety of atmospherical undulation or perchance an intermittent change in atmospherical variables , but it was unclear which was more likely . As indicate out bySpace.com , in theory , atmospheric waves are capable of producing lots of odd geometric feature , such as the hexagon atop Saturn ’s North Pole . However , no figurer mannikin had handle to reproduce its form and organic evolution over fourth dimension .
Despite a lack of grounds , for many years the prevailing guess was that the Y feature could be the result of a phenomenon we see on Earth jazz as theCoriolis effect , which is where global wind convention are turn away on a curved itinerary due to the fact that Earth rotates quicker at the equator than the poles . But this account was flawed given that the Coriolis effect would benegligibleon Venus due to how slowly it spins .
Now , scientist may have finally offered a practicable substitute account with the identification of apreviously unknown type of atmospheric wavethat seems to be compatible with the satellite ’s inert rotation . This wafture can excuse the swarm ’s dark color as it would drive the unknown UV steep substance upward . Furthermore , the bizarre Y shape can also be explained by the fact that lead cause the undulation to become distorted . Between the equator and the middle latitudes , the strong wind that muck up westwards stay relatively constant . However , at higher latitudes , where the planet ’s circumference is smaller , winds whirl around importantly quicker and hence distort the wave .
[ ViaGeophysical Research Letters , Institute of Astrophysics of Andaluciaandspace.com ]
