The "elusive" of Mercury is called because it is difficult to access the observation. This planet, the closest to the Sun, often hides in his rays, and in our sky does not depart far from the sun - as much as possible by 28 degrees, since the orbit of Mercury is located inside the earth. Mercury is always in the sky or in the same constellation, where both the sun or in the neighboring. Usually Mercury is visible against the background of dawn and it is difficult to find on the light sky. The most favorable time for observations of Mercury occurs during the period when he is removed as long as possible from the Sun.

Austria on the same days - on the border of the constellations of the Sagittarius and Capricorn - Mercury is visible next to Venus - it is also a bunch (comparable in brightness with the most bright stars in the sky), but the evening dawn can be brighter and find it and finding Mercury will most likely succeed only in binoculars - Find the eye to the eye, bring binoculars on it and Mercury will be with it in one field of view. This is a rather rare event and must be seen. Rapid of Venus with Mercury will last until mid-January 2015.

USA Angle Removal of the Planet from the Sun is called elongation. If the planet is removed from the sun to the east - this is Eastern elongation, if to the West - Western. With east elongation, Mercury is visible in the West above the horizon in the rays of the evening dawn, shortly after sunset, and comes after some time after him. With Western elongation, Mercury is visible in the morning in the east on the background of dawn, shortly before the sunrise. This couple is visible and from the territory of Russia. Astronomers write. What they can be visible to be within an hour and they come around seven in the evening. January 15, Mercury will be in the greatest Eastern elongation, having removed from the Sun for 19 degrees. And the days closest to this date are most favorable for his observation. After sunset, Mercury will be above the horizon for almost two hours. As a bright asterisk, he will be visible in the southwest in the constellation of Capricorn low above the horizon. Venus will help to find it without difficulty. This brightest planet, attracting attention to his bright glitter, shines in the evenings over the Western horizon. A bright asterisk to the right of it is Mercury.

Japan after January 16, 2015, Venus and Mercury paths in the sky will disperse. Mercury will begin to return to the Sun, describing the loop on the heavenly sphere, and Venus will continue to remove from the daylight and the duration of its visibility will increase every day.

Planet Venus

General information about the planet Venus. Sister of land

Fig.1 Venus. Picture of the Messenger apparatus dated January 14, 2008. Credit: Nasa / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington

Venus is the second planet from the sun, sizes, strength of gravity and the composition very similar to our land. At the same time, this is the brightest after the sun and the moon object in the sky, reaching a star magnitude in -4.4.

The Planet Venus was studied very well, because it was visited over a dozen spacecraft, but some questions from astronomers are still available. Here are just some of them:

The first of the questions concerns the rotation of Venus: its angular velocity is just like this that during the lower connection Venus faces the land all the time. The reasons for such consistency between the rotation of Venus and the orbital movement of the Earth are not yet clear ...

The second question is the source of the atmosphere of Venus, which is a solid giant whirlwind. And the movement is very powerful and is distinguished by astounding constancy. What forces create an atmospheric whirlwind of such sizes is unknown?

And the last, third, question - is there a life on the planet? The fact is that at the height of several tens of kilometers in the cloud layer of Venus, there are quite suitable conditions for the lives of organisms: not very high temperature, suitable pressure, etc ..

It should be noted that issues related to Venus, only half a century ago it was much more. Astronomers did not know anything about the surface of the planet, did not know the composition of her amazing atmosphere, did not know the properties of her magnetosphere and a lot more. But they knew how to find Venus on the night sky, observe her phases associated with the movement of the planet around the Sun, etc .. How to drive such observations below.

Observation of the planet Venus from Earth

Fig.2 View of the planet Venus from the ground. Credit: Carol Lakomiak

Since Venus is closer to the Sun than the Earth, it never seems too remote from it: the maximum angle between it and the sun is 47.8 °. Due to such features of the situation in the sky of the Earth, its maximum brightness of Venus reaches shortly before sunrise or after some time after sunset. Within 585 days, periods of her evening and morning visibility alternate: At the beginning of the Venus period, Venus is visible only in the morning, then after 263 days later, it suits very close to the sun, and its brightness does not allow to see the planet for 50 days; Then comes the period of evening visibility of Venus, a duration of 263 days, while the planet does not quote on 8 days, being between the earth and the sun. After that, the alternation of visibility is repeated in the same order.

Recognize the planet Venus is easy, because at the night sky, it is the brightest after the sun and the moon shining, reaching at the maximum -4,4 star magnitude. A distinctive feature of the planet is its smooth white color.

Fig.3 Change of phases Venus. Credit: Site

When observing Venus, even in a small telescope, you can see how the illumination of its disk changes over time, i.e. A shift of the phases occurs, which Galileo Galileo was first observed in 1610 g. With the greatest convergence with our planet, only a small part of Venus remains consecrated and it takes the kind of thin sickle. The Venus orbit at this time is at an angle of 3.4 ° to the Earth's orbit, so that it usually passes slightly above or slightly below the sun at a distance of up to eighteen solar diameters.

But sometimes there is a situation in which the planet Venus is located approximately one line between the Sun and the Earth and then you can see an extremely rare astronomical phenomenon - the passage of Venus along the sun disk, in which the planet takes the form of a small dark "spin" with a diameter of 1/30 solar.

Fig.4 Passing Venus on the Sun Disk. Snapshot of the NASA apparatus "S TRACE SATELLITE on August 6, 2004 Credit: NASA

This phenomenon occurs about 4 times in 243: first there are 2 winter passing with a periodicity of 8 years, then the period of 121.5 years will last, and 2 times, this time, summer, passing with the same periodicity of 8 years. Winter passage of Venus can then be observed only after 105.8 years.

It should be noted that if the duration of the 243-annual cycle is a relatively constant value, then the frequency between winter and summer passages is changing inside it, due to small inconsistencies in the return periods of the planets to the connecting points of their orbits.

So, until 1518, the internal sequence of the passage of Venus looked like "8-113.5-121.5", and under 546, 8 passes occurred, the intervals between which were equal to 121.5 year. The existing sequence now will continue until 2846, after which it will change it: "105.5-129.5-8".

The last passage of the planet Venus, a duration of 6 hours, was observed on June 8, 2004, the following will take place on June 6, 2012. Then the break will come, the end of which will be only in December 2117.

History of research on the planet Venus

Fig.5 The ruins of the observatory in the city of Chichen-Itsa (Mexico). Source: wikipedia.org.

Planet Venus, along with Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, was known to people of the era of Neolith (the new Stone Age). The planet knew the ancient Greeks, the Egyptians, the Chinese, residents of Babylon and Central America, the Northern Australian tribes. But, in connection with the peculiarities of observation of Venus only in the morning or in the evening, the ancient astronomers believed that they would see completely different celestial objects, therefore they called the morning Venus with one name, and the evening - others. So, the Greeks of the evening Venus gave the name Vesper, and Morning - Phosphorus. The two names of the planet were given and the ancient Egyptians: Taymutiri - Morning Venus and Owie - evening. Maya Indians were called Venus Noh Ek - "Great Star" or Xux Ek - "Star Osa" and able to calculate its synodic period.

The first people who have understood that Venus Morning and Evening - the same planet, were the Greek Pythagoreans; A little later, another ancient Greek - Geraklid Pontic, suggested that Venus and Mercury rotate around the Sun, not the land. At about the same time, Greeks gave the planet the name of the Goddess of Love and Beauty Aphrodite.

But the name "Venus" of the Planet for modern people received from the Romans, who called it in honor of the patronessism of the entire Roman people, which also occupied in Roman mythology, is also a place as Aphrodite in Greek.

As can be seen, the ancient astronomers only watched the planet, passing the synodic periods of rotation and constituting the map of the starry sky. Attempts to calculate the distance from the ground to the Sun, watching the Venus. For this, it is necessary, when the planet is passing directly between the Sun and the Earth, using the pararallax method, measure minor differences in the start time of the beginning or end of passing in two sufficiently remote points of our planet. The distance between the points is further used as the length of the base to determine the distances to the Sun and Venus by the method of triangulation.

Historians do not know when for the first time astronomers observed the passage of the planet Venus on the Disk Sun, but they know the name of the person, the first predicting such passage. They had a German astronomer Johann Kepler, who predicted the passage of 1631. However, in the predicted year, in view of some inaccuracies, Keplerovsky forecast, in Europe no one has observed the passage ...

Fig.6 Jerome Horrors observes the passage of the planet Venus on the sun disk. Source: wikipedia.org.

But another astronomer - Jeroma Horrors, clarifying the calculations of Kepler, found out the exact periods of repetition of passages, and on December 4, 1639 from his home in Mach Hole in England, was able to see the passage of Venus on the Sun disk.

With the help of a simple telescope, Horrors spread the solar disk to the board, where it was possible for the eyes of the observer to see everything that happened against the background of the solar disk. And at 15 o'clock 15 minutes, just half an hour before sunset, the harrock finally saw a predicted passage. With the help of surveillance, English astronomer tried to estimate the distance from the ground to the Sun, which turned out to be 95.6 million km.

In 1667, Giovanni Domenico Cassini took the first attempt to determine the period of rotation of Venus around the axis. The value obtained was very far from valid and amounted to 23 hours 21 minutes. This was due to the fact that Venus had to be observed only once a day and only for several hours. Directing your telescope on the planet for several days and seeing all the time the same picture of Cassini came to the conclusion that Planet Venus made a full turn around the axis.

After the observations of Horrox and Cassini, the Kepler's knowing calculations of the astronomer of the whole world were looking forward to the next opportunity to observe the passage of Venus. And they introduced such an opportunity in 1761. Among the astronomers who conducted observations, was our Russian scientist Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, who found a bright ring at the entry into the sun, and when the bright ring was granted around the Dark Venus Disc. Lomonosov explained the observed phenomenon, subsequently called by him by his name ("Pom-Lomonosov") by the presence of the atmosphere in Venus, in which the sun's rays were refracted.

After 8 years of observation continued to be English by Astronomer William Herschel and German astronomer Johann Schretcher, secondly, "opening" the Venusian atmosphere.

In the 60s of the XIX century, astronomers began to attempt to find out the composition of the detected atmosphere of Venus, and first of all determine the presence of oxygen and water vapor in it using spectral analysis. However, neither oxygen nor the water couple was found. After some time, already in the twentieth century, attempts to find "gases of life" resumed: observations and research was led by A. A. Belopolsky in Pulkovo (Russia) and Velves Melvin Sluff in Flafstaff (USA).

In the same XIX century. Italian astronomer Giovanni Skiaparelli again tried to establish a period of rotation of Venus around his axis. Suppose that the appeal of Venus to the Sun is always one side associated with its very slow rotation. He set the period of its rotation around the axis as equal to 225 days, which was 18 days less real.

Fig. 7 Observatory Mount Wilson. Credit: mwoa

In 1923, Edison Netteit and Seat Nicholson at the Mount Wilson Observatory at Mount Wilson in California (USA) began to measure the temperature of the upper clouds of Venus, who subsequently conducted many scientists. After 9 years, American astronomers W. Adams and T. Danhem on the same observatory were recorded in the spectrum of Venus three bands belonging to carbon dioxide (CO 2). The intensity of the bands allowed us to conclude that the amount of this gas in the atmosphere of Venus is many times higher than its content in the Earth's atmosphere. There were no other gases in the Venusian atmosphere.

In 1955, William Sinton and John Strong (USA) measured the temperature of the cloud layer of Venus, which was equal to -40 ° C, and near the planet's poles even lower.

In addition to the Americans, Soviet scientists N. P. Barabashov, V.V. were engaged in the Russian cloud layer Sharonov and V.I. Ezersky, French astronomer B. Lio. Their research, as well as the theory of light scattering with dense atmospheres of planets, developed by Sobolev, testified that the size of the particles of Venus clouds is about one micrometer. Scientific remained only to find out the nature of these particles and to study the whole crowd of the cloud layer of Venus in more detail, and not only its upper border. And for this it was necessary to send to the planet interplanetary stations, which were subsequently created by scientists and engineers of the USSR and the United States.

The first spacecraft launched to the planet Venus was "Venus-1". This event took place on February 12, 1961. However, after some time, the connection with the apparatus was lost and "Venus-1" entered the orbit of the Sun satellite.

Fig.8 "Venus-4". Credit: NSSDC.

Fig.9 "Venus-5". Credit: NSSDC.

The following attempt was unsuccessful: the venera-2 apparatus flew at a distance of 24 thousand km. from the planet. Only "Venus-3", launched by the Soviet Union in 1965, was able to approach the planet relatively close to the planet and even land on its surface, which contributed to a specially designed descended device. But due to the failure of the station management system, there were no data on Venus.

2 years later - June 12, 1967, Venus-4 went to the planet, also equipped with a descended apparatus, the purpose of which was to study physical properties and the chemical composition of the Venusian atmosphere with the help of 2 resistance thermometers, a barometric sensor, an ionization meter of the atmosphere density and 11 gas analyzers. The device performed its goal by setting the presence of a huge amount of carbon dioxide, a weak magnetic field surrounding the planet and the absence of radiation belts.

In 1969, with an interval of only 5 days, 2 interplanetary stations with sequence numbers 5 and 6 were sent to Venus.

Their descent devices equipped with radio transmitters, radio cellomers and other scientific equipment transmitted information about pressure, temperature, density and chemical composition of the atmosphere during the descent. It turned out that the pressure of the Venusian atmosphere reaches 27 atmospheres; Can it exceed the specified value to find out failed: the descent devices are simply not calculated for greater pressure. The temperature of the Venusian atmosphere during the descent of the devices ranged from 25 ° to 320 ° C. As part of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide was dominated with a small amount of nitrogen, oxygen and an admixture of water vapor.

Fig.10 "Mariner-2". Credit: NASA / JPL

In addition to the spacecraft of the Soviet Union, the American devices of the Mariner series were engaged in studying the planet, the first of which with the sequence number 2 (No. 1 suffered an accident at the start) flew by the planet in December 1962, determining the temperature of its surface. Similarly, flying past the planet in 1967, Venus explored another American spacecraft - "Mariner-5". Performing its program Fifth at Mariner's number confirmed the prevalence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, found out that the pressure in the thicker of this atmosphere can reach 100 atmospheres, and the temperature is 400 ° C.

It should be noted that the study of the planet Venus in the 60s. went from the ground. So, with the help of radar methods, American and Soviet astronomers found that the rotation of Venus is reverse, and the period of rotation of Venus is ~ 243 days.

On December 15, 1970, the spacecraft Venera-7 for the first time reached the surface of the planet and, worked on it 23 minutes, transferred data on the composition of the atmosphere, the temperature of the various layers of its layers, as well as pressure, which, according to the measurement results, turned out to be 90 atmospheres.

After a year and a half - in July 1972, another Soviet apparatus was landed on the surface of Venus.

With the help of scientific equipment installed on the descent apparatus, the illumination was measured on the surface of Venus, equal to 350 ± 150 lux (as on earth on a cloudy day), and the density of surface rocks equal to 1.4 g / cm 3. It was found that the Venus clouds lie at a height from 48 to 70 km, has a layered structure and consist of 80% sulfur droplets.

In February 1974, Venus flew by Mariner-10, for 8 days photographed her cloud cover in order to study the dynamics of the atmosphere. According to the obtained images, it was possible to determine the period of rotation of the Venusian cloud layer equal to 4 days. It also found out that the rotation is clockwise when looking from the North Pole of the Planet.

Fig.11 The descent apparatus "Venus-10". Credit: NSSDC.

A few months later, Soviet spacecraft with sequence numbers 9 and 10 were landed in October 74th on the surface of Venus 9. Landing at 2,200 km from each other, they handed over the first surface panoramas in places of landing. Within an hour, the descent devices transferred scientific information from the surface to spacecraft, which were translated into the orbits of the artificial satellites of Venus and relayed it to the ground.

It should be noted that after the "Venus-9 and 10" flights, the Soviet Union launched all spacecraft of this series by pairs: first one apparatus was sent to the planet, then with the minimum time interval - the other.

So, in September 1978, Venus-11 and Venera-12 went to Venus. On December 25 of the same year, their descent devices reached the surface of the planet, while making a number of shots and transferring some of them to the Earth. Part, because one of the descent devices did not operate the protective caps of the chamber.

When the devices are descending, electrical discharges were recorded in the venera atmosphere, and extremely powerful and frequent. So, one of the devices revealed 25 discharges per second, the other - about a thousand, and one of the grindes continued for 15 minutes. According to astronomers, the electrical discharges were associated with the active volcanic activity in the places of the scene of spacecraft.

At about the same time, the study of Venus was already led by the spacecraft of the American series - "Pioneer-Venus-1", launched on May 20, 1978.

Coming out on the 24-hour elliptic orbit around the planet on December 4, the device for one and a half years performed radar surface map, studied the magnetosphere, the ionosphere and the cloudy structure of Venus.

Fig.12 "Pioneer-Venus-1". Credit: NSSDC.

Following the first "pioneer", the second one went to Venus. It happened on August 8, 1978. On November 16, the first and largest of the descent devices separated from the device, after 4 days, 3 other descent devices were separated. On December 9, all four modules entered the atmosphere of the planet.

According to the results of the study of the descent apparatuses "Pioneer-Venus-2", the composition of the atmosphere of Venus was determined, as a result of which it turned out that the concentration of Argon-36 and Argon-38 concentration in it is 50-500 times the concentration of these gases in the Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide, with a small amount of nitrogen and other gases. Under the clouds of the planet were found traces of water vapor and higher than expected, molecular oxygen concentration.

The cloudy layer itself, as it turned out, consists of at least 3 well-pronounced layers.

The top of them, lying at 65-70 km, contains drops of concentrated sulfuric acid. 2 other layers in approximately the same, with the only difference that in the lowest of the larger sulfur particles predominate. At altitudes below 30 km. Venus's atmosphere relatively transparent.

During the descent, the devices performed temperature measurements that confirmed the enormous greenhouse effect, reigning on Venus. So, if at altitudes about 100 km, the temperature was -93 ° C, then on the upper boundary of the -40 ° C clouds, and then continued to increase, reaching the surface of 470 ° C ...

In October-November 1981, "Venus-13" and Venus-14, the descent devices of which in March, already the 82nd, reached the surface of the planet, transferred the surface of the planet, transferring panoramic images of landing plants to Earth, At which the yellow-green Venusian Sky was visible, and examined the composition of the Venusian soil, in which they showed up: silica (up to 50% of the entire ground), aluminum alums (16%), magnesium oxides (11%), iron, calcium and other Elements. In addition, with the help of a recording device installed on "Venus-13", scientists first heard the sounds of another planet, namely, the rolled thunders.

Fig.13 The surface of the planet Venus. Snapshot of the Vena-13 apparatus on March 1, 1982. Credit: NSSDC.

On June 2, 1983, AMS (Automatic Interplanetary Station) "Venus-15" went to Planet Venus, which on October 10 of the same year entered the polar orbit around the planet. On October 14, Venus-16 was removed in orbit, launched 5 days later. Both stations were designed to study the Venusian relief using radar radar installed on board. Having worked together with more than eight months of the station received an image of the surface of the planet within the extensive area: from the north pole up to ~ 30 ° Northern latitude. As a result of the processing of this data, a detailed map of the northern hemisphere of Venus on 27 sheets was compiled and the first atlas of the planet relief was released, which, however, covered only 25% of its surface. Also, based on the filming of devices, Soviet and American cartographers within the first international project For extraterrestrial cartography, which was held under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences and NASA, jointly created a series of three visual cards of Northern Venus. The presentation of this series of maps called "A set for flight planning" Magellan "took place in the summer of 1989 at the International Geological Congress in Washington.

Fig.14 The descent Module of AMS "Vega-2". Credit: NSSDC.

After the "Venus", the study of the planet continued the Soviet AMS series "Vega". All these devices were two: "Vega-1" and "Vega-2", which, with a difference of 6 days, started to Venus in 1984. Six months later, the devices came close to the planet, then the descent modules were separated from them, which, entering the atmosphere, were also divided into landing modules and aerostal probes.

2 aerostat probe, after filling the shells of their parachutes helium, drifted at an altitude of about 54 km in different hemispheres of the planet, and transmitted data for two days flying during this time a way about 12 thousand km long. The average speed with which the probes flew this path was 250 km / h, which was helped by the powerful global rotation of the atmosphere of Venus.

These probes showed the presence of very active processes in the cloud layer characterized by powerful ascending and downward flows.

When VEGI-2 probe flew in the Aphrodite area over the top of 5 km high, he got into the air pit, dropping sharply by 1.5 km. Both probe also recorded thunderstorms.

The planting devices conducted a study of the cloudy layer and the chemical composition of the atmosphere, while declining, after which, having made a soft landing on the plain of mermaids, proceeded to the soil analysis by measuring the x-ray fluorescent spectra. In both points where the modules were landed, they found rocks with relatively low contents of natural radioactive elements.

In 1990, when performing gravitational maneuvers, the device "Galileo" ("Galileo") flew from Venus, from which the NIMS infrared spectrometer was drawn, as a result of which it turned out that on the waves with a length of 1.1, 1.18 and 1, 02 μm The signal correlates with the topography of the surface, that is, for the corresponding frequencies there are "windows", through which the surface of the planet is visible.

Fig.15 Loading the interplanetary station "Magellan" in the cargo compartment of the Spacecraft "Atlantis". Credit: JPL.

A year earlier - May 4, 1989, the Interplanetary station NASA "Magellan" went to Planet Venus, which, worked until October 1994, received photos of almost the entire surface of the planet, passing a number of experiments.

Removal was carried out until September 1992, covering 98% of the surface of the planet. Coming out in August 1990, on an elongated polar orbit around Venus with heights from 295 to 8,500 km and a period of circulation of 195 minutes, an apparatus, with each convergence with the planet, mapped the narrow bandwidth from 17 to 28 km and about 70 thousand km long. All such bands it turned out 1800.

Since "Magellan" repeated many areas from different angles, which made it possible to make a three-dimensional surface model, as well as explore possible changes in the landscape. The stereo image was obtained for 22% of the Venusian surface. In addition, a map of the venera surface heights obtained using an altimeter (high-volume) and the electrical conductivity map of its rocks are made.

According to the results of the pictures on which parts of up to 500 m easily differed, it was found that the surface of the Venus planet is mainly occupied by hilly plains, and is comparatively young on geological standards - about 800 million years. Meteoric craters on the surface are relatively small, but there are often traces of volcanic activity.

From September 1992 to May 1993, Magellan was engaged in the study of the Venus gravitational field. During this period, he did not carry out the surface radar, and broadcast a constant radio signal to the Earth. By changing the frequency of the signal, it was possible to determine the slightest changes in the velocity of the apparatus (so-called Doppler effect), which made it possible to identify all the features of the gravitational field of the planet.

In May, "Magellan" began his first experiment: applying atmospheric braking technology in practice, to clarify the information received earlier about the gravitational field of Venus. To do this, its lower point of the orbit was slightly reduced so that the apparatus taking the upper layers of the atmosphere and changed the parameters of the orbit without the cost of fuel. In August, the Orbit "Magellan" ran down 180-540 km altitudes, having a period of circulation of 94 minutes. According to the results of all measurements, a "gravitational card" was compiled, which covered 95% of the surface of Venus.

Finally, in September 1994, a final experiment was conducted, the purpose of which was the study of the upper layers of the atmosphere. The solar panels of the apparatus were unfolded like a windmill blades, and the "Magellan" orbit is reduced. This made it possible to obtain information about the behavior of molecules in the topmost layers of the atmosphere. On October 11, the orbit was reduced for the last time, and on October 12, at the entrance to the dense layers of the atmosphere, the connection with the apparatus was lost.

During his work, Magellan made several thousand turns in orbit around Venus, trying to shoot the planet with the help of lateral overview radar.

Fig.16 Cylindrical map of the surface of the planet Venus, composed of pictures of the Magellan interplanetary station. Credit: NASA / JPL

After the flight "Magellan" within a long 11 years in the history of the study of Venus, spacecraft reigned a break. The program of interplanetary studies of the Soviet Union was cooler, the Americans switched to other planets, primarily on the Gas Giants: Jupiter and Saturn. And only on November 9, 2005, the European Space Agency (ESA) sent the Space Agency of the New Generation of Venus Express (Venus Express), created on the same platform as Mars Express launched 2 years.

Fig.17 Venus Express. Credit: ESA.

5 months after the launch - on April 11, 2006, the device arrived at the planet Venus, soon going on a strongly elongated elliptical orbit and becoming her artificial satellite. In the most remote point of the orbit from the center of the planet (apocenter), Venus Express leaving a distance of 220 thousand kilometers from Venus, and in the most close (pericenter) passed at an altitude of only 250 kilometers from the surface of the planet.

After a while, thanks to the subtle corrections of the orbit, the pericenter of Venus Express was lowered even lower, which allowed the device to enter the most upper layers of the atmosphere, and, due to aerodynamic friction, only at times slightly, but confidently, driving the speed to lower the height of the Apotenter. As a result, the parameters of the orbit, which became an octolar, acquired the following parameters: the height of the Apotenter is 66,000 kilometers, the height of the pericenter - 250 kilometers, the period of circulation of the device in orbit - 24 hours.

The parameters of the near-olarm orbit of Venus Express were chosen outly: so the period of circulation of 24 hours is convenient for regular communication with the ground: close to the planet, the device collects scientific information, and removing from it, conducts an 8-hour communication session, transmitting at times to 250 MB of information. Another important feature of the orbit is its perpendicularity of the Equator Venus, which is why the device has the ability to explore the polar regions of the planet in detail.

When leaving for an octopolar orbit, an annoying trouble has happened to the device: failed, or rather, the PFS spectrometer designed to study the chemical composition of the atmosphere was disappeared. As it turned out, the mirror jammed, which should have shifted the "look" of the device from the reference source (on board the probe) on the planet. After a number of attempts to get around the failure, engineers were able to turn the mirror for 30 degrees, but this was not enough for the device to work, and in the end it had to turn off.

On April 12, the device first removed the previously photographed previously southern pole of Venus. These first photos obtained using the Virtis spectrometer from a height of 206,52 kilometers above the surface, allowed to reveal a dark funnel, similar to this formation over the North Pole of the Planet.

Fig.18 Clouds over the surface of Venus. Credit: ESA.

On April 24, the VMC camera made a series of cloud cover of Venus in the ultraviolet range, which is associated with a significant - 50-percent, absorption of this radiation in the planet's atmosphere. After binding to the coordinate grid, a mosaic image was obtained, covering a significant area of \u200b\u200bclouds. When analyzing this image, low-contrast belt structures were revealed, which are the result of strong winds.

A month after arrival - May 6 at 23:49 hours 49 minutes Moscow time (19:49 UTC), Venus Express moved to its permanent working orbit with a period of handling 18 hours.

On May 29, the station conducted an infrared shooting of the Southern Polar Region, finding the whirlwind of a very unexpected form: with two "calm zones", which are complexly connected with each other. Having studied a picture of the picture, scientists came to the conclusion that in front of them 2 different structures lying at different heights. How stable it is atmospheric education, it is unclear.

July 29 Virtis made 3 pictures of the atmosphere of Venus, from which a mosaic was drawn up showing it complicated structure. The pictures were made at an interval of about 30 minutes and notably did not coincide on the borders, which indicates the high dynamic of the atmosphere of Venus, associated with hurricane winds, with speeds of more than 100 m / s.

Another set on Venus Express spectrometer - Spicav found that the clouds in the atmosphere of Venus can rise to a 90-kilometer height in the form of a dense fog and up to 105 kilometers, but already in the form of a more transparent haze. Previously, other spacecraft fixed the clouds only to a height of 65 kilometers above the surface.

In addition, with the help of the SOIR block in the SPICAV spectrometer, scientists have found in the atmosphere of Venus "heavy" water, which contains atoms of heavy hydrogen isotope - deuterium. The usual water in the planet's atmosphere is sufficient to cover the entire surface of its surface with a 3-centimeter layer.

By the way, knowing the percentage of "heavy water" to the usual one can estimate the dynamics of the water balance of Venus in the past and present. According to this data, it was assumed that in the past on the planet there could be an ocean in a depth of several hundred meters.

Another important scientific device installed on the "Venus Express" - the Aspera Plasma Analyzer, registered a high rescue rate of a substance from the atmosphere of Venus, and also tracked the trajectories of other particles, in particular, helium ions having solar origins.

Venus Express continues to work so far, although the estimated duration of the mission of the apparatus directly on the planet was 486 terrestrial days. But the mission could be extended if the station resources will allow, at the same time, which apparently happened.

Currently, the development of a fundamentally new spacecraft is already underway in Russia - the interplanetary station Venera-D, intended for a detailed study of the atmosphere and the surface of Venus. As expected, the station will be able to work on the surface of the planet of 30 days, perhaps more.

On the other side of the ocean - in the United States, commissioned by NASA, the Global Aerospise Corporation also recently began to develop a draft study of Venus with a balloon, so-called "Managed air robot researcher" or Dare.

It is assumed that the dare anestate with a diameter of 10 m will be running in the cloud layer of the planet at an altitude of 55 km. The height and direction of the Dare flight will be regulated by Stratoplane, which looks like a small aircraft.

The cable under the balloon will be located the gondola with telecons and several dozen small probes, which will be discharged to the surface in interesting areas for observation and study the chemical composition of a variety of geological structures on the surface of the planet. These areas will be chosen based on the detailed shooting of the area.

The duration of the anestant mission is from six months to a year.

Orbital movement and rotation of Venus

Fig.19 Distance from Planets earth Group to the sun. Credit: LUNAR AND PLANETARY INSTITUTE

Around the sun, the Venus planet moves close to a circular orbit, inclined to the plane of the ecliptic at an angle of 3 ° 23 "39". Eccentricity of the Venusian orbit is the smallest in Solar systemand is only 0.0068. Therefore, the distance from the planet to the Sun always remains approximately the same, making up 108.21 million km. But the distance between Venus and Earth is changing, and within wide limits: from 38 to 258 million km.

In their orbit, located between the orbits of Mercury and the Earth, the planet Venus moves with an average speed of 34.99 km / s and a siderial period of 224.7 terrestrial day.

Around his axis, Venus rotates much slower than in orbit: the Earth has time to turn 243 times, and Venus - only 1. Ie The period of its rotation around its axis is 243,0183 terrestrial day.

And the rotation does not happen from the West to the East, like all the other planets, except uranium, and from the east to the west.

The opposite rotation of the planet Venus leads to the fact that the day it lasts 58 terrestrial days on it, the same amount lasts night, and the duration of the Venusian day is 116.8 Earth, so during the Venusian age you can see only 2 sunrises and 2 sunset, and the sunrise It will happen in the West, and the occasion is in the east.

The speed of rotation of the solid body of Venus confidently can only be determined by radar, due to the solid cloud cover, which hides its surface from the observer. For the first time, radar reflection from Venus was obtained in 1957, and first the radio pulses were sent to Venus to measure the distance to clarify the astronomical unit.

In the 80s, the United States and the USSR began to explore the blurring of the reflected pulse in frequency ("spectrum of a reflected impulse") and tightening in time. The frequency blur is explained by the rotation of the planet (Doppler effect), tightening in time - in different distance to the center and edge of the disk. These studies were carried out mainly on the radio waves of the decimeter range.

In addition, the rotation of Venus is the opposite, it has another very interesting feature. The angular velocity of this rotation (2.99 10 -7 rad / s) is just such that during the lower connection Venus faces the land all the time. The reasons for such consistency between the rotation of Venus and the orbital movement of the Earth are not yet clear ...

And finally, let's say that the slope of the plane of the equator Venus to the plane of its orbit does not exceed 3 °, which is why seasonal changes on the planet are insignificant, and the seasons are not at all.

Internal structure of the planet Venus

The average density of Venus is one of the highest in the solar system: 5.24 g / cm 3, which is only 0.27 g less than the density of the Earth. The masses and volumes of both planets are also very similar, with the difference that the earth has several more parameters: a mass of 1.2 times, volume of 1.15 times.

Fig.20 The internal structure of the planet Venus. Credit: NASA.

Based on the considered parameters of both planets, it can be concluded that internal structure their similar. And indeed: Venus, as well as the earth consists of 3 layers: bark, mantle and nuclei.

The topmost layer is the Venusian Bark, about 16 km thick. The bark of basalts having a low density is about 2.7 g / cm 3, and the lava is formed as a result of the outpouring on the surface of the planet. Probably, therefore, the Venusian Core has a relatively small geological age - about 500 million years. According to some scientists, the process of the outpacing of lava flows to the surface of Venus occurs with some periodicity: first the substance in the mantle, due to the decay of radioactive elements, heats up: convective streams or plums are selected by the bark of the planet, forming unique surface parts - tessra. Having reached a certain temperature of the Lava streams break through their way out to the surface, covering the basalt layer almost the entire planet. The outpouring of basalts occurred repeatedly, and during the periods of volcanic activity, lava plains were stretched at the expense of cooling, and then the belt of venerana cracks and a variety were formed. About 500 million years ago, the processes in the upper mantle of Venus seemed to drop, perhaps due to the depletion of internal heat.

Under the planetary cortex lies the second layer - the mantle, which extends to the depth of about 3300 km to the border with the iron core. Apparently, the mantle of Venus consists of two layers: a solid lower mantle and partially melted top.

The core of Venus, the mass of which is about a quarter of the entire mass of the planet, and the density is 14 g / cm 3 - solid or partially melted. This assumption is advanced on the basis of the study. magnetic field Planets, which is simply not. And since there is no magnetic field, it means there is no source, which this magnetic field generates, i.e. In the iron core there is no movement of charged particles (convective flows), therefore, the motion of the substance in the kernel does not occur. True, the magnetic field may not be generated and due to the slow rotation of the planet ...

The surface of the planet Venus

Venus planet shape is close to spherical. It can more accurately be represented by a three-way ellipsoid, which has a polar compression of two orders of magnitude less than that of the Earth.

In the equatorial plane of the semi-axis of the ellipsoid Venus is equal to 6052.02 ± 0.1 km and 6050.99 ± 0.14 km. Polar semi-axle is 6051.54 ± 0.1 km. Knowing these sizes can be calculated the surface area of \u200b\u200bVenus - 460 million km 2.

Fig.21 Comparison of the planets of the solar system. Credit: Site

Data on the size of the solid body Venus was obtained using radio interference methods and refined using radio-one-sometrical and trajectory measurements when the planet was within the reach of spacecraft.

Fig.22 Estla region on Venus. The high volcano is visible away. Credit: NASA / JPL

Most of the surface of Venus is occupied by the plains (up to 85% of the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe planet), among which smooth, slightly complicated network of narrow winding half-borons, basalt plains prevail. Much less area than smoothly occupy lobed or hilly plains (up to 10% of the surface of Venus). For them, the language-shaped protrusions are typical, as if blades that differ in radio accuracy, which can be interpreted as extensive lava covers of low-viscosity basalts, as well as numerous cones and dome with a diameter of 5-10 km, sometimes with craters on tops. It is found on Venus and sections of plains, thickly covered with cracks or practically not disturbed by tectonic deformations.

Fig.23 Ishtar archipelago. Credit: NASA / JPL / USGS

In addition to the plains on the surface of Venus, three extensive sublime areas were found, which are assigned the names of the earth goddesses of love.

One of these areas is the Ishtar archipelago, is an extensive mountainous area in the northern hemisphere, comparable in size with Australia. In the center of the archipelago lies Plateau Lakshmi volcanic origin, which in the area twice as much more terrestrial Tibet. From the west, the plateau is limited to the Mountains of the Acne, from the North-West - the Mountains of the Frey, up to 7 km high and from the south - the folded mountains of Danu and the weights of Vesta and UT, with a total decrease of up to 3 km or more. The eastern part of the plateau is "crashed" into the highest mountain system Venus - Maxwell Mountains, named after English physics James Maxwell. The central part of the mountain range towers 7 km, and separate mountain peaks located near the zero meridian (63 ° C.Sh. and 2.5 ° V.D.) rise to heights of 10.81-11.6 km, 15 km above the most Deep Venusian Wpadin, which lies near the equator.

Another sublime area - Aphrodite archipelago stretching along the Venusian equator, in size even more: 41 million km 2, although heights are lower.

This extensive territory, located in the Equatorial region of Venus and stretching for 18 thousand km, covers longitude from 60 ° to 210 °. It extends from 10 ° S.Sh. Up to 45 ° Yu.Sh. more than 5 thousand km, and its eastern tip - the field of atla - stretches to 30 ° S.Sh.

The third elevated region of Venus is the land of Lada, lying in the southern hemisphere of the planet and the opposite Ishtar archipelago. This is a fairly smooth territory, the average surface height is close to 1 km, and the maximum (just over 3 km) is achieved in the Cotswaleptlatl crown with a diameter of 780 km.

Fig.24 Tesser Ba "Het. Credit: NASA / JPL

In addition to these sublime areas, due to their sizes and heights, called "lands", other, less extensive are allocated on the surface of Venus. Such, for example, tessra (from the Greek - Tile), which are hill or highlands with sizes from hundreds to thousands of kilometers, the surface of which is crossed in different directions by the systems of stepped ridges and separating their grooves formed by the roces of tectonic faults.

The ridges or ridges within the Tester can be linear and extended: to many hundreds of kilometers. And can be acute or, on the contrary, rounded, sometimes with a flat vertex surface bounded by vertical ledges, which resembles a combination of ribbon grabens and horshves on earthly conditions. Often the ridges resemble a crumpled film of frozen jelly or cable lava basalts of the Hawaiian islands. The height of the ridge can be up to 2 km, and the ledges are up to 1 km.

The gutter, separating the ridges, go far beyond the limits of Nagrai, stretching out thousands of kilometers through extensive Venusian Plains. According to topography and morphology, they look like the rift zones of the Earth and seem to have the same nature.

The formation of the tester themselves is associated with repeated tectonic movements of the upper layers of Venus, accompanied by compression, stretching, split, raising and lowering various surface sections.

This, it must be said, the most ancient geological formation on the surface of the planet, therefore the names are assigned appropriate: in honor of the goddesses associated with time and destiny. So, a major highlands, stretching at 3,000 km near the North Pole, named Tesseri Fortune, south of him is a Tesser Limes, who bears the name of the Latvian goddess of happiness and fate.

Together with the lands or continents, Tessers occupy a little more than 8.3% of the territory of the planet, i.e. Exactly 10 times less than the plains, and perhaps are the foundation significant, if not all, the territory of the plains. The remaining 12% of the territory of Venus occupy 10 types of relief: crowns, tectonic faults and canyons, volcanic dome, "arachnoids", mysterious channels (furrows, lines), ridges, crater, paters, crater with dark parabolami, hills. Consider each of these elements of the relief in more detail.

Fig.25 Crown is a unique relief item on Venus. Credit: NASA / JPL

The crowns, which are on a par with tessers, unique details of the surface of the surface of Venus, are large volcanic depressed oval or round shape with a raised central part, surrounded by shafts, ridges, depressions. The central part of the crowns occupies an extensive intergrantar plateau, from which mountain ridges depart, often towering over the central part of the plateau. The annular framing of the crowns is usually incomplete.

The crowns on the planet Venus, based on the results of the study with spacecraft, discovered several hundred. Between themselves, the crowns differ in sizes (from 100 to 1000 km), the age of the alignment of their breeds.

The crowns were formed, apparently, as a result of active convective flows into the mantle of Venus. Around many of the crowns, frozen lava flows are observed, divergent to the sides in the form of broad languages \u200b\u200bwith the festral outer edge. Apparently, it was the crowns that could serve as the main sources through which the molten substance from the subsoil was made to the surface of the planet, frozen forming extensive plain sections, occupying up to 80% of the territory of Venus. The names of these abundant sources of molten rocks are given by the names of the goddesses of fertility, crop, colors.

Some scientists believe that the crowns are preceded by another specific form of the Venusian Relief - Arahanoids. Arachnoids who received their name because of the external similarity with spiders, in shape resemble the crowns, but have smaller sizes. Bright lines extending from their centers for many kilometers may correspond to the surface faults that have arisen when Magma escaped from the bowels of the planet. Total arachnoids are known about 250.

In addition to the tester, crowns and arachnoids with endogenous (internal) processes, the formation of tectonic faults or gutters is associated. Tectonic faults are often grouped in excess (up to thousands of kilometers) belts, very widespread on the surface of Venus and can be associated with other structural form of relief, for example, with canyons, which in their structure resemble earth continental rifts. In some cases, almost orthogonal (rectangular) pattern of mutually intersecting cracks is observed.

Fig.27 Mount Maat. Credit: JPL.

Venenis and volcanoes are very widespread on the surface: there are thousands of them here. Moreover, some of them achieve huge sizes: up to 6 km of height and 500 km width. But most of the volcanoes are significantly less: only 2-3 km in the diameter and 100 m in height. The overwhelming majority of Venusian volcanoes are extinct, but some may be erupted and now. The most obvious candidate for the role of the acting volcano is Mount Maat.

In a number of places on the surface of Venus, mysterious furrows and lines from hundreds up to several thousand kilometers and a width of 2 to 15 km were found. Externally, they look like river valleys and have the same signs: Mederah-shaped gyms, discrepancy and alignment of individual "ducts", and, in rare cases, something similar to the delta.

The longest channel on the planet Venus is the Valley of Baltis, the length of about 7,000 km with a very sustained (2-3 km) width.

By the way, the northern part of the Baltis Valley was discovered on the pictures of AMS "Venus-15" and "Venus-16", but the resolution of the images of that time was not high enough to distinguish the details of this education, and it was reformed as an extended crack of unknown origin.

Fig.28 Channels on Venus within Lada Earth. Credit: NASA / JPL

The origin of the Venusian Vallee or River remains a mystery, and in the first place because scientists are unknown fluid capable of cutting the surface at such distances. Calculations made by scientists have shown that basalt lavs, traces of the outpounding of which are widespread throughout the surface of the planet, would not have enough heat reserves to non-stop to flow and subjection the substance of the basalt plains, cutting into them the channel for thousands of kilometers. After all, such channels are known, for example, on the Moon, the truth is the length of them - just dozens of kilometers.

Therefore, it is probably a liquid that has cut the basalt plains of Venus for hundreds and thousands of kilometers, there could be superheated comatite lava or even more exotic liquids like molten carbonates or molten sulfur. Before the end, the origin of Venus Venus is unknown ...

In addition to the valleys that are negative form of relief, the plains of Venus are common and positive forms of relief - ridges, known as one of the components of the specific relief of the tester. The ridges are often formed in the extended (up to 2000 km and more) belt wide in the first hundreds of kilometers. The width of a separate ridge is much less: rarely up to 10 km, and on the plains is reduced to 1 km. Gird heights range from 1.0-1.5 to 2 km, and ledges that limit them are up to 1 km. Light winding ridges Against the background of a more dark radio image, plains are the most characteristic pattern of the surface of Venus and occupy ~ 70% of its area.

Such details of the surface of Venus as hills are very similar to the ridges, with the difference that their size is less.

All form (or types) described above (or types) of the surface of Venus are obliged to their origin of the inner energy of the planet. Types of relief, the origin of which is caused by external causes, on Venus there are only three: crater, paters and crater with dark parabolami.

In contrast to many other bodies of the Solar System: the planets of the earth group, asteroids, relatively little shock meteorite crater was found on Venus, which is associated with active tectonic activities, which ceased 300-500 million years ago. Volcanic activity flowed very rapidly, since otherwise the number of craters on more ancient and younger sites would noticeably different, and their distribution would not be random.

In total, 967 craters were detected on the surface of Venus, with a diameter of 2 to 275 km (Krater MFA). Craters are conditionally divided into large (over 30 km) and small (less than 30 km), which include 80% of the total number of all crater.

The density of shock crater on the surface of Venus is very low: about 200 times less than on the moon, and 100 times less than on Mars, which corresponds to only 2 craters per 1 million km 2 of the Venusian surface.

Considering the pictures of the surface of the planet made by the Magellan apparatus, scientists were able to see some sides of the formation of shock crater in the conditions of Venus. A bright rays and rings were found around the craters - a breed, thrown during an explosion. Many crater parts of emissions are a fluid flow substantial forming aimed one way to one way from the crater extensive streams in tens of kilometers. So far, scientists have not yet found out what is fluid: superheated shock melt or suspension of a fine-luminary solid and melt droplets suspended in a near-surface atmosphere.

Several Venusian craters flooded by Lova, received from the adjacent plains, but the overwhelming majority of them have a very decent appearance, which indicates a weak intensity of the processes of material erosion on the surface of Venus.

The bottom of most craters on Venus is dark, which indicates a smooth surface.

Another common type of terrain is crater with dark parabolami, and the main area is occupied by the dark (in the radio image) parabola, the total area of \u200b\u200bwhich is almost 6% of the entire surface of Venus. Color Parabola is associated with the fact that they are stacked by the cover of a fine-grinding material with a capacity of up to 1-2 m, formed by emissions from shock crater. It is also possible to process this material by eolocy processes that dominated in a number of areas of Venus, leaving multi-kilomete sections of a strip-shaped eolo relief.

Paters are similar to crater and crater with dark parabolas - craters of irregular shape or complex crater with festral edges.

All these data were collected when Planet Venus turned out to be within the reach of spacecraft (Soviet, Series "Venus", and American, Mariner series and Pioneer Venus).

So, in October 1975, the descent devices of the AMS "Venus-9" and "Venus-10" made a soft landing on the surface of the planet and handed out the landing site. These were the world's first photos, transmitted from the surface of another planet. The image was obtained in visible rays using a telephoto meter - system, according to the principle of action resembling mechanical television.

In addition to photographing the surface of the AMS "Venus 8", Venus - 9 and Venus - 10, the density of surface rocks and the content of natural radioactive elements in them are measured.

In places of landing "Venus-9" and "Venus-10", the density of surface rocks was close to 2.8 g / cm 3, and in terms of the content of radioactive elements, it can be concluded that these breeds are close in composition to basalts - the most widespread Estimated rocks of the earth's crust ...

In 1978, the American apparatus "Pioneer Venus" was launched, the result of which was the topographic map, created on the basis of radar shooting.

Finally in 1983 in orbit around Venus came out spaceships Venus-15 and Venus-16. Using the radar, they built a map of the northern hemisphere of the planet to 30 ° parallels on a scale of 1: 5,000,000 and for the first time they discovered such unique parts of the venera surface as tessra and crowns.

Even more detailed cards of the entire surface with the details of up to 120 m were obtained in 1990 by the "Magellan" ship. With the help of computers, radar information was turned into images, similar to photos where volcanoes, mountains and other landscape details are visible.

Fig.30 Topographic map Venus, composed of the pictures of the Magellan interplanetary station. Credit: NASA.

According to the decision of the International Astronomical Union on the Venus map - only women's namesSince she herself, the only planet, wears a female name. Of this rule there are only 3 exceptions: Maxwell Mountains, Alpha and Beta.

Names for the details of its relief, which are taken from the mythologies of the various nations of the world, are assigned in accordance with the initial order. Like this:

Highlands are named after the goddesses, Titanide, Giant. For example, an area of \u200b\u200bulfrune, called name by name of one of the nine Greats in the Scandinavian myths.

Lowlands - Heroine myths. In honor of one of these heroines of ancient Greek mythology, the deepest lowland atalant, lying in the northern latitudes of Venus.

The furrows and lines are named after female warlike mythological characters.

The crowns in honor of the goddesses of fertility, agriculture. Although the most famous of them is the crown of a peavot diameter of about 350 km, named in honor of Russian ballerina.

Ridges are called in honor of the goddesses of the sky, female mythological characters associated with the sky, light. So one of the plains stretched the mood of the witch. And the plain of Beregini from the North-West to the southeast crosses the ridges of the geers.

Earth and plateau wear the names of the goddesses of love, beauty. Thus, one of the continents (lands) of Venus is named Earth Ishtar and is a high-altitude region with a vast plateau with Lakshmi volcanic origin.

Canyons on Venus are named after mythological characters associated with forest, hunting or moon (similar to Roman Artemis).

Mountain terrain in the northern hemisphere of the planet crosses the extended canyon of Baba Yagi. Within the fields of beta and soves, the canyon is allocated. And from the field of the benemis to the Earth's Earth, more than 10 thousand km stretched out the largest Venusian Quarry Parnege.

Names to large crater are assigned by last name famous women. Small craters are just ordinary women's names. Thus, on the alpine plateau Lakshmi, you can find small craters of Berta, Lyudmila and Tamara, located south of Frey Mountains and the east of the major crater Osipenko. Next to the crown of Nefertiti is Crater Potanina, the name of the Russian researcher of Central Asia, and nearby - Crater Valkali (English writer, author of the novel "Wood"). And the largest crater on the planet received the name of the American ethnographer and the anthropologist Margaret MFA.

Paters are called the same principle as large crater, i.e. According to the names of famous women. Example: Patera Salfo.

Plains get titles in honor of the heroine of various myths. For example, the plains of Snow Maiden and Baba Yagi. Plain Loukhi extends around the North Pole - the Mistress of the North in Karelian and Finnish myths.

Tessers get titles in honor of the goddesses of fate, happiness, good luck. For example, Venus is the largest among Tester called Tesser Tellura.

Signs - in honor of the goddesses of a homely hearth: Vesti, UT, etc ..

It must be said that the planet is leading in terms of the number of items among all planetary bodies. On Venus and the largest variety of titles by their origin. 3D There are names from the myths of 192 of various nationalities and ethnic groups from all continents of the world. And the names are located on the planet inverse, without the formation of "national districts".

And in the conclusion of the description of the surface of Venus, we give a brief structure of the modern map of the planet.

For zero meridian (corresponds to the earth Greenwich) on a map of Venus, in the mid-60s, a meridian was adopted, passing through the center of light (on radar images) of the rounded region of the diameter in 2 thousand km, located in the southern hemisphere of the planet and the region of Alpha region on the initial The letter of the Greek alphabet. Later, with an increase in the permitting ability of these images, the position of the zero meridian was shifted by about 400 km due to the fact that it passes through a small bright spot in the center of a large ring structure with a diameter of 330 km called Eva. After creating the first extensive maps of Venus in 1984, it was found that exactly on the zero meridian, in the northern hemisphere of the planet, is located a small crater with a diameter of 28 km. Crater was named Ariadna, named heroine of the Greek myth and was much more convenient as a support point.

Zero Meridian, together with a 180 ° meridian divides the surface of Venus for 2 hemispheres: East and West.

The atmosphere of Venus. Physical conditions on the planet Venus

Over the lifeless surface of Venus lies the unique, the most dense in the solar system, the atmosphere found in 1761 M.V. Lomonosov, who observed the passage of the planet across the Sun disk.

Fig.31 Venus closed clouds. Credit: NASA.

The atmosphere of Venus is so dense that it is absolutely impossible to see any details on the surface of the planet. Therefore, for a long time, many researchers believed that the conditions on Venus are close to the fact that they were on the ground in the coal period, and therefore, there lives and similar fauna. However, the study conducted using the descent apparatuses of interplanetary stations has shown that the climate of Venus and the Climate of the Earth is two big differences and nothing in common between them. So, if the temperature of the lower layer of air on Earth rarely exceeds + 57 ° C, then on Venus, the temperature of the near-surface air layer reaches 480 ° C, and its daily oscillations are insignificant.

Significant differences are observed in the atmosphere of two planets. If in the atmosphere of land the predominant gas is nitrogen, with sufficient oxygen content, insignificant content of carbon dioxide and other gases, then in the atmosphere of Venus, the situation is directly opposite. The predominant share of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide (~ 97%) and nitrogen (about 3%), with small additives of water vapor (0.05%), oxygen (thousandth fractions of percent), argon, neon, helium and crypton. In very small quantities there are also impurities SO, SO 2, H 2 S, CO, HCl, HF, CH 4, NH 3.

The pressure and density of the atmospheres of both planets is also very different. For example, atmospheric pressure on Venus is about 93 atmospheres (93 times more than on Earth), and the density of the Venusian atmosphere is almost two orders of magnitude higher than the density of the Earth's atmosphere and only 10 times less than the density of water. Such a high density may not affect the total mass of the atmosphere, which is about 93 times higher than the mass of the atmosphere of the Earth.

As many astronomers are considered now; High surface temperature, great atmospheric pressure and a large relative carbon dioxide content - factors apparently related. Heat It helps to convert carbonate rocks into silicate, with the release of CO 2. On Earth CO 2, it is binding to the sedimentary rocks as a result of the action of the biosphere, which is absent on Venus. On the other hand, the large content of CO 2 contributes to the heating of the Venusian surface and the lower layers of the atmosphere, which was established by American scientist Karl Sagan.

In fact, the gas shell of the planet Venus is a giant greenhouse. It is capable of passing solar heat, but does not release outward, along the way the radiation itself is absorbed. The absorbers are carbon dioxide and water vapor. The greenhouse effect takes place in the atmospheres of other planets. But if in the atmosphere of Mars, it raises the average temperature at the surface by 9 °, in the atmosphere of the Earth - 35 °, then in the atmosphere of Venus this effect reaches 400 degrees!

Some scientists believe that 4 billion years ago, the atmosphere of Venus was more like an atmosphere of land with liquid water on the surface and it was the evaporation of this water that caused an uncontrolled greenhouse effect, observed and at present ...

The atmosphere of Venus consists of several highly differ in density, temperature and pressure of the layers: troposphere, mesosphere, thermospheres and exosphere.

The troposphere is the lowest and dense layer of the Venusian atmosphere. It concluded 99% of the mass of the entire atmosphere of Venus, of which 90% - to a height of 28 km.

The temperature and pressure in the troposphere with high decreases, reaching at the heights of close to 50-54 km, values \u200b\u200b+ 20 ° + 37 ° C and pressure of only 1 atmosphere. Under such conditions, water may exist in a liquid form (in the form of the smallest droplets), which, together with the optimal temperature and pressure, similar to those near the surface of the Earth, creates favorable conditions for life.

The top border of the troposphere lies at an altitude of 65 km. Above the surface of the planet, separating from the layer underlying above - the mesosphere - tropopapuza. Hurricane winds are dominated here with speeds 150 m / s and above, against 1 m / s at the surface itself.

Winds in the venera atmosphere are created by convection: hot air over the equator rises up and spreads to poles. This global rotation is called Hadley (Hadley).

Fig.32 Polar whirlwind near the South Pole Venus. Credit: ESA / VIRTIS / INAF-IASF / OBS. De Paris-Lesia / Univ. of oxford

On the latitudes close to 60 °, the Rotation of Hadley is suspended: hot air is lowered down and starts the opposite movement to the equator, it also contributes to a high concentration in these carbon monoxide places. However, the rotation of the atmosphere does not stop and north of the 60s of the latitude: so-called here. "Polar collars". They are characterized by low temperatures, high positions of clouds (up to 72 km.).

Their existence is a consequence of a sharp rise in air, as a result of which adiabatic cooling is observed.

Around the most poles of the planet framed by the "Polar Collars", there are polar vortices of giant scale, four times large than their earth analogues. Every vortex has two eyes - the center of rotation, which is called polar dipoles. The vortices rotate with a period of about 3 days in the direction of the overall rotation of the atmosphere, and the wind speeds range from 35-50 m / s near their external edges to zero at poles.

Polar vortices, as astronomers are considered today, these are anticyclones with descending air flows in the center and sharply climbing the polar collars. Venus structure on Earth - Winter polar anticyclones, especially the one that is formed above Antarctic.

Mesosphere Venus extends at altitudes from 65 to 120 km and can be divided into 2 layers: the first lies at an altitude of 62-73 km, it is distinguished by a constant temperature and is the upper boundary of the clouds; The second is at the height between 73-95 km, the temperature here drops with a height, reaching on the upper border of its minimum in -108 ° C. Above 95 km above the surface of Venus begins mesopause - the boundary between the mesosphere and the above thermosphere. Within mesopause, the temperature grows with a height, reaching Venus on the day side + 27 ° + 127 ° C. On the night side of Venus, within the mesopause, there is significant intake and the temperature drops to -173 ° C. This area is the coldest on Venus, sometimes even called the cryosphere.

At altitudes above 120 km, there is a thermosphere that extends to a height of 220-350 km, to the border with an exosphere - district where the light gases leave the atmosphere and is mainly present only hydrogen. Exosphere ends, and with it and the atmosphere at an altitude of ~ 5,500 km, where the temperature reaches 600-800 K.

Within the meso and thermosphere of Venus, as well as the air mass is rotated below the troposphere. True, the movement of the air mass occurs not in the direction from the equator to the poles, but in the direction from the daily side of Venus to the night. On the daily side of the planet, a powerful rise of warm air occurs, which spreads at altitudes of 90-150 km, moving to the night side of the planet, where the heated air sharply falls down, resulting in adiabatic heating of the air. The temperature in this layer is only -43 ° C, which is as much as 130 ° above the overall side of the mesosphere.

Another AMC series of the Venus series with sequence numbers 4, 5 and 6 were obtained on the characteristics of the Venusian atmosphere 4, 5 and 6. Venus 9 and 10 clarified the content of water vapor in the deep layers of the atmosphere, finding out that the Max water vapor is contained at a height of 50 km where it is a hundred times more than that of a solid surface, and the share of the pair is approaching one percent.

In addition to learning the composition of the atmosphere, the interplanetary stations "Venus-4, 7, 8, 9, 10" measured pressure, temperature and density in the lower layers of the atmosphere of Venus. As a result, it was found that the temperature on the surface of Venus is about 750 ° K (480ºC), and the pressure is close to 100 atm.

The descent devices "Venus-9" and "Venus-10" also received information relating to the structure of the cloud layer. So, at altitudes from 70 to 105 km there is a rarefied stratospheric haze. Below, at an altitude of 50 to 65 km (rarely up to 90 km), there is the most dense layer of clouds, which, according to its optical properties, rather closer to the sparse fog than the clouds in the earth's sense of the word. Visibility range here reaches a few kilometers.

Under the main cloud layer - at altitudes from 50 to 35 km, the density falls several times, and the atmosphere weakens solar radiation at the expense of Rayleigh scattering in CO 2.

Pinical haze appears only at night, spreading down to the level of 37 km - by midnight and up to 30 km - to the dawn. By noon, this haze dissipates.

Fig.33 Lightning in the atmosphere of Venus. Credit: ESA.

The color of the clouds of orange-yellow color, due to significant content in the atmosphere of the planet CO 2, whose large molecules dissipate this part of the sunlight, and the composition of the clouds themselves consisting of 75-80 percent sulfuric acid (possibly even fluorinist-sulfur ) With impurities of hydrochloric and laying acids. The composition of Venus clouds was revealed in 1972 by the American researchers Louise and Andrew Yangami, as well as Godfrey Silla, independently of each other.

Studies have shown that the acid in the veneranial clouds is formed by the chemical way of sulfur dioxide (SO 2) with sources of which can be sulfur-containing surface rocks (pyrite) and volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes show themselves in another: their eruptions give rise to powerful electrical discharges - real thunderstorms in the atmosphere of Venus, which were repeatedly recorded by the appliances of the Venus stations. And thunderstorms on the planet Venus are very strong: lightning beaten for 2 orders of magnitude more often than in the earth's atmosphere. This phenomenon was called "Electric Dragon Venus".

The clouds have a very high brightness, reflecting 76% of the light (it is comparable to the reflectivity of cumulus clouds in the atmosphere and ice polar caps on the ground surface). In other words, more than three fourth solar radiation is reflected by the clouds and only less than one quarter passes down.

The temperature of the clouds is from + 10 ° to -40 ° C.

The cloud layer is moving rapidly from the east to the west, making one turn around the planet for 4 terrestrial days (according to the observations of Mariner-10).

Magnetic field of Venus. Magnetosphere of Planet Venus

Magnetic field Venus slightly - its magnetic dipole moment is less than that of the Earth, at least five orders of magnitude. The causes of such a weak magnetic field are: the slow rotation of the planet around its axis, the low viscosity of the planetary core may also have other reasons. Nevertheless, as a result of the interaction of the interplanetary magnetic field with the ionosphere of Venus, the latter creates magnetic fields of small tensions (15-20 NTL), chaotic and non-permanent. This is the so-called caused magnetosphere of Venus, which has a head shock wave, magnetosula, magnetopause, the tail of the magnetosphere.

The head shock wave lies at the heights of 1900 km above the surface of the planet Venus. This distance was measured in 2007 during a minimum of solar activity. During the maximum of solar activity, the height of the shock wave increases.

Magnetopause is located at an altitude of 300 km, which is a little higher than ionopause. Between them there is a magnetic barrier - a sharp increase in the magnetic field (up to 40 TL), which prevents the penetration of the solar plasma into the depths of the Venus atmosphere, at least during the minimum of solar activity. In the upper layers of the atmosphere with the activities of solar wind, significant losses of O +, H + and OH + ions are associated. The length of the magnetopause up to ten radii of the planet. The very magnetic field of Venus, more precisely its tail, stretches up to several dozen venerana diameters.

The ionosphere of the planet with which the presence of a magnetic field of Venus occurs under the influence of significant tidal effects due to the relative proximity to the Sun, due to which the electric field is formed above the surface of the venera, the voltage of which can halve the tension of the "Clear Field" observed above the ground . Venus ionosphere is located at 120-300 km altitudes and consists of three layers: between 120-130 km, between 140-160 km and between 200-250 km. At the heights of close to 180 km can be an additional layer. The maximum number of electrons per unit of volume - 3 × 10 11 M -3 was detected in 2 layer near the sunflower point.

Venus is the second planet of the solar system and the nearest neighbor of the Earth. Between the Venus and our planet the distance "total" 108,000,000 million kilometers. Therefore, scientists consider Venus as one of the possible places to settle. That's just a day on Venus lasts like a globe, and the sun gets up in the West. On the oddities of our amazing neighbor and will be discussed in this review.

1. Day is equal to year

Day on Venus is more than a year. To be more accurate, the planet rotates around its axis so slowly that the day on Venus lasts 243 terrestrial days, and the year is 224.7 Earth days.

2. visible without a telescope

There are 5 planets that can be seen with the naked eye, and not using a telescope. This is Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

3. Size and orbit

Of all the planets of the solar system, Venus is most similar to Earth. Some call it the twin of the earth, since both planets have about the same size and orbit.

4. Floating cities

Recently, scientists argue that cities that will swim over Venus clouds can be the best choice for potential colonization of another planet. Although the blood pressure reigns on the surface of Venus, the conditions at a height of hundreds of kilometers (temperature, pressure and strength of gravity) are almost perfectly suitable for a person.

In 1970, the Soviet interplanetary space probe landed in Venus. He became the first ship, which landed on another planet, as well as the first one who passed the data from there back to Earth. True, it lasts not long (only 23 minutes) because of the extremely aggressive situation on the planet.

6. Temperature on the surface

As you know, the temperature on the surface of Venus is such that there can not survive any living. And also here is a metal snow.

7. Atmosphere and voice

8. Surface gravity planets

Surface gravities of Venus, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are approximately the same. On average, they constitute 15% of earthly gravity.

9. Volcanoes Venus

There are more volcanoes on Venus than any other planet in the solar system. To be more accurate, there are more than 1600 them, most of the current.

10. Atmospheric pressure

Is it worth saying that the pressure of the atmosphere on the surface of Venus is also, to put it mildly, unfriendly to people. To be more accurate, it is approximately 90 times higher than the pressure at sea level on Earth.

11. Surface temperature

On the surface of Venus reigns a real hell. Temperature here can reach 470 degrees Celsius. It is not surprising that the Vena-7 probe has lived so long.

12. Hurricanes Venus

Wind on Venus is not lagging behind the temperature by extreme. For example, on the middle layer of clouds, hurricanes are often with wind speed to 725 km / h.

13. Sunrise in the West

No manual object survived on Venus for more than 127 minutes. It was so much that the Vena-13 probe lasted.

Scientists today are actively developing space topic. And recently told about.

Instruction

Five were discovered in ancient times when there were no telescopes. The nature of their displacements in the sky is different from moving. Based on this, people separated from millions of stars.
There are internal and external planets. Mercury and Venus are closer to the Sun than the Earth. Their location on the heavenly sky is always close to the horizon. Accordingly, these two planets internal planets. Also, Mercury and Venus follow the sun. Nevertheless, they are visible to the naked eye at the moments of maximum elongation, i.e. During the maximum corner from the Sun. These planets can be noticed at the twilight, shortly after sunset or in the predestal clock. Venus is much larger than Mercury, much brighter, and it is easier to notice. When Venus appears in the sky, no star will not compare in brightness with it. Venus shines with white light. If you carefully look at it, for example, with the help of binoculars or telescope, it can be noted that it has different phases, like the moon. Venus can be observed in the form of a sickle, decreasing or increasing. In early 2011, Venus was visible about three hours before dawn. It will be possible to observe it with the naked eye from the end of October. It will be visible in the evening, in the southwest in the constellation of the scales. Closer to the end of the year its brightness and the duration of the visibility period will increase. Mercury is mostly visible during twilight, it is difficult enough to detect. For this ancient called him the God of Twilight. In 2011, it will be possible to see it from the end of August for about a month. The planet will first be visible in the morning clock in the constellation of cancer, and then go to the constellation of the lion.

The external planets include, respectively, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They are best observed in moments of confrontation, i.e. Then, when the land turns out to be on one straight line between the planet and the sun. Staying in the sky they can all night. The maximum brightness of Mars (-2,91m) This planet is only inferior to Venus (-4M) and Jupiter (-2.94 m). In the evening and in the morning Mars are visible as a red-orange "star", and in the middle of the night changes light on yellow. In 2011, Mars will appear in the sky in the summer and will again disappear at the end of November. In August, the planet can be seen in the constellation of the twins, and by September it will go to the constellation of cancer. This is often visible in heaven as one of the brightest stars. Despite this, it is interesting to observe him with the help of binoculars or a telescope. In this case, the disc surrounding the planet and the four largest satellites become visible. The planet will appear in June 2011 in the eastern part of the sky. Jupiter will approach the Sun, gradually losing brightness. Closer to the autumn, its brightness will start rising again. At the end of October, Jupiter will enjoy the opposition. Accordingly, the autumn months and December are the best time to observe the planet.
From mid-April and before the beginning of June, Saturn is the only planet that can be observed with the naked eye. The next favorable period for observations of Saturn will be November. This planet is slowly moving around the sky and will be all year in the constellation of the Virgin.

\u003e\u003e How to find Venus on the night sky

How to find Venus in the Star Sky - Description for observer from the planet Earth. Examine in the photo how to use Jupiter, Moon, Mercury, the constellation Gemini.

Venus - the second planet from the Sun, so with how to find the Venus in the Star Sky there is no problems. Take advantage of the starry sky online or carefully study the lower circuits, where constellations, planets and auxiliary stars are indicated.

To accurately not guess the place, you can use special applications to phones. Or let's go after the ancient astronomers and take advantage of natural prompts.

To find Venus, start with ecliptic. When you follow the passage of the sun in the sky, then this line is referred to as the ecliptic. Depending on the time of year, this route changes: rises and lowered. The maximum is observed during the summer solstice, and the minimum falls on the winter.

Many celestial bodies are the easiest to find when lengthening. These are points where the planets are set closer to the Sun in relation to us. There are two varieties: Eastern - located in the evening sky and the western - in the morning. Naturally, all this concerns only the prospects for the earthly observer. Admire what Venus looks like in a non-professional telescope.

Because of our turnover, the movement of bodies covers 15 degrees per hour. Venus enters visibility, only when approaching 5 degrees to the Sun, so you will not see it 20 minutes after the appearance of the Sun or before disappearance. The planet is located between 45-47 degrees from the star and moves 3 hours and 8 minutes after / ahead of the sun.

If you want to see something in addition to a light spot, then you need to buy a telescope. In addition, there will be a planetary filter or off-axial mask. Well, if the mechanism is endowed with an automatic tracking system.