Smithsonian Planetary Image Facility

Venus in the Ultraviolet and the Infrared
Data from Venus Express was used to compare what the planet looks like at different wavelengths.

ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA and ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA

Hemispheric View of Venus
The hemispheric view of Venus is centered at 180 degrees east longitude. The Magellan spacecraft imaged more than 98 percent of Venus at a resolution of about 100 meters; the effective resolution of this image is about 3 km. A mosaic of the Magellan images (most with illumination from the west) forms the image base. Gaps in the Magellan coverage were filled with images from the Earth-based Arecibo radar. The composite image was processed to improve contrast and to emphasize small features, and was color-coded to represent elevation. Gaps in the elevation data from the Magellan radar altimeter were filled with altimetry from the Venera spacecraft and the U.S. Pioneer Venus missions.

NASA/JPL/USGS

Venus Cloud Patterns
This picture of Venus was taken by the Galileo spacecraft’s Solid State Imaging System on February 14, 1990. A highpass spatial filter has been applied in order to emphasize the smaller scale cloud features, and the rendition has been colorized to a bluish hue in order to emphasize the subtle contrasts in the cloud markings. The sulfuric acid clouds indicate considerable convective activity, in the equatorial regions of the planet to the left and downwind of the subsolar point (afternoon on Venus). They are analogous to "fair weather clouds" on Earth.

NASA/JPL

Venus - Mead Crater
This Magellan image mosaic shows Mead crater, the largest impact crater known to exist on Venus.

NASA/JPL

Venus - 3D Perspective View of Sapas Mons
Sapas Mons is displayed in the center of this computer-generated three-dimensional perspective view of the surface of Venus.

NASA/JPL