Akatsuki’s Amazing Views of Venus

[Suppressed]

Akatsuki’s Amazing Views of Venus
Almost everyone considered Japan's Venus-bound orbiter a lost cause, but Akatsuki survived, reached its objective, and is wowing scientists with results.
By: Emily Lakdawalla | February 1, 2018
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/akatsukis-amazing-views-of-venus/

Its engine blew up seven years ago, and by all rights the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki shouldn't have survived. However, engineers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) refused to give up.

The spacecraft not only survived its deep-space catastrophe, but it's now safely in orbit around Venus and producing breathtaking images of swirling clouds at multiple levels within the planet's dense atmosphere that have never been glimpsed before. Scientists from the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft, which circled the planet from 2006 to 2015, were amazed by newly released Akatsuki images and pronounced them "fabulous." Two of these appear below.

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[Clicking should take you to where you can view larger-size versions.]




Damia Bouic, an amateur image processor, combined Akatsuki images taken through its UVI camera — at different distances — to create this composite. The brown region bristles with small convective clouds.
JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic


Akatsuki's IR2 camera acquired this view of the night side of Venus. Infrared energy from hot, mid-altitude clouds shows up bright, while higher clouds that block the heat appear dark. The dark sawtooth at center appears to be a turbulent boundary. The planet's sunlit crescent is overexposed at upper right.
JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic

@Freya @kevindavis

[Oceander]

Sweet!

[kidd]

Venus' clouds are not as uniform as we'd thought.

Very cool. Thanks for posting this.

BTW - the engines didn't "blow up". The orbital insertion thrust only lasted 2-3 minutes instead of 12 minutes because high combustion temperatures damaged the combustion chamber throat and nozzle due to a jammed valve. The failure put the probe in orbit around the sun instead of Venus...eventually the probe caught up to Venus again and attitude control thrusters were used to put the probe in orbit around Venus. It is now 100% functional, albeit at a much higher orbit.

[Suppressed]

Very cool. Thanks for posting this.

BTW - the engines didn't "blow up". The orbital insertion thrust only lasted 2-3 minutes instead of 12 minutes because high combustion temperatures damaged the combustion chamber throat and nozzle due to a jammed valve. The failure put the probe in orbit around the sun instead of Venus...eventually the probe caught up to Venus again and attitude control thrusters were used to put the probe in orbit around Venus. It is now 100% functional, albeit at a much higher orbit.

@kidd
You're welcome.  And thank you for the clarification.