On June 5, NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft flew past Venus just 338 km above the planet's surface and shot a laser into the clouds. Although MESSENGER is on a mission to Mercury, the spacecraft must pass by Venus for a gravity assist en route. In passing, researchers hope to learn a few things about the planet with sulfuric acid clouds, a choking carbon dioxide atmosphere, and a surface hot enough to melt lead.
"We are treating the Venus flyby as a full dress rehearsal for the first flyby of Mercury in January 2008," said Sean Solomon, the mission's principal investigator at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "All of the spacecraft's science instruments will be turned on during the flyby."
The experiment aims to measure the location of Venus' cloud decks. The Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) was designed to map the rocky topography of Mercury, but MLA turns out to have some nice properties for the study of Venus. In addition to the laser, MESSENGER will scrutinize Venus using high-resolution cameras, a suite of spectrometers ranging in wavelength from infrared to gamma rays, an energetic particle counter, and a magnetometer.
For more information about the MESSENGER mission, including a photo gallery and movies, click here .
