BACKGROUND
1. Hubble Ultraviolet View of Venus

This represents the best telescopic image available of Venus. Taken in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope at ultraviolet wavelengths and presented here in false color, this image reveals the cloud patterns in the venusian atmosphere. No surface features are visible from space, and at optical wavelengths not even the cloud patterns are visible. Venus, as viewed from Earth, has phases because its orbit around the Sun is inside Earth’s orbit.

From NSSDC, image processing by L. Esposito (University of Colorado, Boulder), and NASA.

Click here to view a high-resolution version of the image (101 KB)