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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 10: Planets and Small Bodies I

EP 10.1: Hauptvortrag

Donnerstag, 2. April 2009, 11:00–11:30, HS-Ost Pharmazie

Venus Express: a fascinating journey to our planet-neighbour — •Dmitry Titov¹ and Håkan Svedhem² — ¹Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany — ²ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Venus Express is the first European (ESA) mission to the planet Venus. It aims at the global and long-term remote and in-situ investigation of the atmosphere, the plasma environment, and some surface properties from orbit. The spacecraft, based on the Mars Express bus modified for the conditions at Venus, provides a versatile platform for nadir and limb observations as well as solar, stellar, and radio occultations. The payload includes a powerful suite of remote sensing imagers and spectrometers, instruments for in-situ analysis of the circumplanetary plasma, and a radio science experiment. Since April 2006 Venus Express has been performing detailed investigation of (1) the atmospheric structure by infrared remote sensing and radio and solar occultation techniques; (2) the composition and chemistry by nadir and occultation spectroscopy, including observations of the Venus lower atmosphere on the night side; (3) the cloud morphology and atmospheric dynamics by imaging the planet at different wavelengths; (4) the plasma environment and escape processes by measuring density and fluxes of energetic neutral atoms, ions, and electrons and magnetic field; (5) the surface by thermal mapping and bi-static radar sounding. The Venus Express observations provide a new and deep insight in the physics of our mysterious sister-planet and significantly contribute to the field of comparative planetology.