Oxygen airglow over clouds at Venus

This beautiful composite is made of images obtained by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board ESA’s Venus Express on 13 May 2007 at 1.27 and 1.7-micrometre wavelengths. The imaging distance from the planet varies from 62 000 km (top left) to 49 000 km (down right).

The blue part indicates the oxygen-airglow emission at 95-km altitude over the planet’s surface, while the yellow part indicates the underlying clouds situated at about 45-50 km over the surface. The composite illustrates how the airglow evolves over one Venus Express orbit (about 24 hours).
High-resolution versions of the individual images:
18_VIRTIS_oxygen_airglow_composite_1, 18_VIRTIS_oxygen_airglow_composite_2, 18_VIRTIS_oxygen_airglow_composite_3, 18_VIRTIS_oxygen_airglow_composite_4