Chandra Release - November 29, 2001

Visual Description: Venus

This is the first X-ray astronomical image of the planet Venus ever captured. The Chandra image features a large number of bright golden spots or dots, which are scattered across the black background in a sort of crescent moon shape. The half crescent shape is due to the relative orientation of the Sun, Earth and Venus. The X-rays from Venus are produced by fluorescent radiation from oxygen and other atoms in the atmosphere between 120 and 140 kilometers above the surface of the planet. In contrast, the optical light from Venus is caused by the reflection from clouds 50 to 70 kilometers above the surface.