The BepiColombo probe, on its recent visit to Venus, has unveiled a fascinating discovery about the escape of gases from the planet’s upper atmosphere. This revelation sheds new light on the complex interactions between Venus and the solar wind, providing valuable insights into the planet’s atmospheric evolution.
During its flyby of Venus in August 2021, BepiColombo ventured into previously unexplored regions of the planet’s magnetosphere. This magnetic environment, shaped by the interaction of Venus’s upper atmosphere with the solar wind, plays a crucial role in determining how gases escape from the planet.
BepiColombo snuck in a science experiment while passing by Venus
✨Turns out: the Morning Star is leaking carbon & oxygen ions into space
Find out more from @europlanetmedia 👉https://t.co/hEtj11E96ICredit: Thibaut Roger/Europlanet 2024 RI/Hadid et al. pic.twitter.com/9TzSeEZHzq
— ESA Science (@esascience) April 12, 2024
Surprisingly, the probe detected oxygen and carbon being accelerated to speeds capable of escaping Venus’s gravitational pull. This finding challenges scientists’ previous understanding of atmospheric escape processes on the planet and highlights the dynamic nature of Venus’s magnetosphere.
“This is the first time that positively charged carbon ions have been observed escaping from Venus’s atmosphere. These are heavy ions that are usually slow moving, so we are still trying to understand the mechanisms that are at play,” said astronomer Lina Hadidlead author of the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Unlike Earth, Venus lacks an intrinsic magnetic field but still possesses a comet-shaped ‘induced magnetosphere’ created by the interaction of charged particles from the solar wind. BepiColombo’s journey through this magnetosphere provided scientists with a unique opportunity to study the mechanisms driving atmospheric escape.
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The discovery holds significant implications for understanding Venus’s atmospheric history. Once similar to Earth with abundant liquid water, Venus has undergone dramatic changes over time, losing much of its water to space. By studying the processes driving atmospheric escape, scientists can piece together the planet’s evolution and better understand its current state.
“Characterising the loss of heavy ions and understanding the escape mechanisms at Venus is crucial to understand how the planet’s atmosphere has evolved and how it has lost all its water,” said Dominique Delcourt, researcher at the Plasma Physics Laboratory.
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About the BepiColombo mission
The BepiColombo mission is a joint endeavor between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to study the planet Mercury. It was named after Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, an Italian mathematician and engineer who made significant contributions to the study of Mercury’s orbit.
BepiColombo was launched in October, 2018 and it is composed of two spacecraft – the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The duo works together to gather data on Mercury’s composition, geology, magnetic field, and exosphere.
