Oxygen airglow over clouds at Venus

This mosaic is composed of images taken by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board ESA’s Venus Express in July 2007, at a distance of about 65 000 km from the planet’s surface.

It shows a peak of the oxygen airglow (brightest parts in the image), a phenomenon visible in the upper atmosphere of Venus at night. The images were obtained at 1.27 micrometres.