Parker Solar Probe detects a radio signal from Venus atmosphere cnn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cnn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
May 9, 2021
New measurements from Parker Solar Probe – the first new direct measurements of Venus’ atmosphere in nearly 30 years – showed an unexpected natural radio signal being emitted by Venus’ ionosphere. The probe made the discovery while using Venus as a “gravity slingshot” to come closer to the sun.
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Venus has been in the news a lot since last September, when researchers announced the possible detection of phosphine, a possible life sign, in its atmosphere. On May 3, 2021, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe announced another discovery: a never-before-seen natural low-frequency radio signal in the atmosphere of Venus. The probe, designed primarily to study the sun, came close to Venus to use it as a gravity slingshot, needed to propel the probe sunward. Parker Solar Probe was at its closest to Venus yet – only about 500 miles (800 km) above Venus’ surface on July 11, 2020 – when it found the surprising signal.
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Sputnik International
4 MAY 2021
During a close flyby of the planet Venus in July 2020, NASA s Parker Solar Probe detected something odd.
As it dipped just 833 kilometers (517 miles) above the Venusian surface, the probe s instruments recorded a low-frequency radio signal - a telltale sign that Parker had skimmed through the ionosphere, a layer of the planet s upper atmosphere.
This was the first time an instrument had been able to record direct
in situ measurements of Venus upper atmosphere in nearly three decades, and the data recorded gives us a new understanding of how Venus changes in response to cyclic changes in the Sun. I was just so excited to have new data from Venus, said astronomer Glyn Collinson of NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The natural radio signal is helping scientists study the atmosphere of Earth s less hospitable twin, according to the NASA team responsible for the probe.