The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
This false-colour composite image of Venus’s atmosphere was obtained by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board ESA’s Venus Express, from a limb (or profile) perspective.
The top panel shows the oxygen nightglow of Venus at an altitude of approximately 96 km over the surface of the planet, seen at a wavelength of 1.27 microns.
The bottom panel shows the same portion of the atmosphere observed at the same time, but at a different wavelength (around 1.22 microns). Here it is possible to see the nightglow of nitric oxide, which is much weaker than that of oxygen and comes from an higher altitude — around 110 km above the surface.
In red is the thermal emission of Venus at 1.74 microns; one of the atmospheric windows of Venus exploited by VIRTIS.