Scientists hope Japanese probe can answer questions about planet Venus

  • Scientists hope Japanese probe can answer questions about planet Venus
    Venus is not a placid paradise — that much we know. In addition to searing surface temperatures, wind in the upper atmosphere howls as fast as 250 mph, carrying clouds around the planet once every four days. Yet Venus itself spins very slowly: one rotation every 243 Earth days — in the wrong direction, no less, opposite to almost every other body in the solar system. On the whole, the atmosphere on Earth rotates about the same speed as the planet. So why does the air on slow-spinning Venus speed around so much faster than the planet itself? The Japanese space probe Akatsuki, now in orbit around Venus, seeks to solve the mystery of so-called super-rotation. That is not just an idle trivia...
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