Sharmila Kuthunur is a Seattle-based science journalist covering astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. Follow her on X @skuthunur.
, according to flyby data from Europe's BepiColombo space probe. This data was obtained as the Mercury-bound spacecraft flew past Venus, and could shed new light on the leaky atmosphere of our planetary neighbor. Down the line, the findings could help scientists catalog the makeup of Venus' fragile magnetic environment as well., Venus does not possess its own, stable magnetic field.
Venus' thick, hellish atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide, but also holds fewer amounts of nitrogen and other trace gases. Scientists previously knew tiny amounts of oxygen lofted in Venus' night-side and, last November, a different team of researchersthe molecule on the planet's day-side too. The latter team further concluded that Venus' oxygen concentration drops in tandem with decreasing solar radiation.
Investigating the loss of these molecules and their escape mechanisms"is crucial to understand how the planet's atmosphere has evolved and how it has lost all its water," study co-author Dominique Delcourt, who is also a researcher at the Plasma Physics Laboratory, said in the same statement.
BepiColombo is nearing the end of its seven-year journey and is expected to reach Mercury in late 2025. Meanwhile, a fleet of robotic visitors are scheduled to visitin the coming decade. Europe's Envision spacecraft aims to launch in 2031 while NASA's DAVINCI, originally slated for a 2029 launch, was delayed tois now scheduled to launch no earlier than 2031 as well, although team members are still advocating for an earlier launch in November 2029.
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