Four hours later...

This image, of the ‘eye of the hurricane’ on Venus was taken by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board Venus Express.

This picture shows a region in the venusian atmosphere about 60 km from the surface, at a wavelength of about 5 micrometres. This image is taken only 4 hours after the previous one. In this short time, the vortex has already evolved into a different shape.

Using two images taken at different times, it is possible to measure the wind speeds and study the dynamics of the region.

The yellow dot in the image indicates the location of the south pole.