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January 2008

The Latest from Venus Express: Talk by Dr Andrew Coates

Written by James Wilhelm

Dr Andrew Coates from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory gave a talk that was, as always, interesting and informative. He gave up to date information on the Venus Express mission science results, some of which was only recently published in Nature.

Venus Express is an ESA mission that is currently orbiting Venus. It contains several science instruments for the study of the atmosphere of Venus and the environment around Venus. It involved countries around Europe. In the UK, there was involvement from Science and Industry.

MSSL was involved in the building of the electron spectrometer of the ASPERA-4 instrument. This instrument is used to study the loss of the Venusian atmosphere due to the solar wind.

Venus does not have a global magnetic field. Andrew compared various planets in the Solar System. In each case, he presented a diagram that showed the size of the planet's magnetosphere relative to the size of the planet. It was clear that Venus does not have a magnetosphere. The result is that Venus looses a significant amount of atmosphere each day. The escaping atmosphere was found to contain water and heavy water.

The atmosphere of Venus is dynamic. Convection has been observer near the sub-solar point.

Other interesting points are the evidence found of lightning as well as the potential discovery of SO2 injection in the Venusian atmosphere by volcanos.

The Nature website has a section on Venus Express. This contains publications with news on the Follow this link to the Venus Express section on the the Nature website.

After Andrew's talk, we had the usual coffee break. Our always-busy secretary prepared for and helped the next two presenters prepare for the second half of the evening. There was the GAS library to peruse and others used the opportunity to have discussions or just to catch up with friends.

After the break, John Evans (GAS President) presented the results of the recent GAS member survey. Some interesting and, in some cases, unexpected results were returned. This information will be used to improve the Society for its members. The results will be published in Skywatcher.

John then went on to give an update on GAS training.

A new feature of our meetings is a 10-15 minute slot where a member gives a short talk on his/her astronomical activities. Pam gave a talk on her astronomy holiday in March of 2007 at the Emberger Alm in Austria. It is a ski resort that also has two telescopes, a Meade 12" LX200 and a 17.5" Newtonian for use by guests. Each is in its own observatory. See also this link for more details. The resort is in a good location in the mountains, so conditions are excellent for astronomy.