Four Views of Venus (High Pass Filter)

These are enhanced versions of four views of the planet Venus taken by the Galileo's Solid State Imaging System at distances ranging from 1.4 to 2 million miles as the spacecraft receded from Venus. The pictures in the top row were taken about 4 and 5 days after closest approach, and those in the bottom row six days after closest approach, 2 hours apart. These show the faint Venusian cloud features especially clearly. A high-pass filter was applied to bring out broader global variations in tone. The bright polar hoods are a well-known feature of Venus. Of particular interest to planetary atmospheric scientists are the complex cloud patterns near the equator, in the vicinity of the bright subsolar point, where convection is most prevalent. The Galileo Project is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; its mission is to study Jupiter and its satellites and magnetosphere after multiple gravity-assist flybys at Venus and Earth.