Researchers Publish 2010 Venus Ring Findings as Models Reproduce Signals With 5%-10% Density Shifts
Updated
Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 27
Researchers Publish 2010 Venus Ring Findings as Models Reproduce Signals With 5%-10% Density Shifts
1 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 27
Summary
A 36-minute 2010 Venus observation made with the ExPo polarimeter captured vast concentric rings across much of the planet’s day side, and the team has now published the unresolved signal for outside scrutiny.
Computer simulations showed 5%-10% density variations in Venus’s upper atmosphere could generate similar polarization rings, supporting a hypothesis that atmospheric gravity waves produced the pattern.
ExPo recorded polarized light while suppressing ordinary light, letting it reveal atmospheric structure invisible to standard imaging; the instrument was later dismantled, leaving no direct way to repeat the original setup.
Akatsuki’s later detection of a planet-scale Venus wave helped make the interpretation physically plausible, though the authors stress the rings remain unconfirmed until new observations reproduce them.
If verified, the rings could offer a new way to probe wave-driven energy transport tied to Venus’s superrotation, where clouds circle the planet in 4 Earth days while Venus rotates in 243.