Since when is VENUS red?

Just last night I was sitting at my computer checking out google earth, when my 3 y/o comes up and says, "Daddy, thats boring, I want to look at space". So I gladly switched over to google sky so he could see some "cool" space pictures. I wasnt long after, he got bored of looking at nebulas and galaxies. He then asked "where are the planets?" So I started the furthest out with Pluto (yes, I know its not offically a plantet any more).

Then to my suprise when we got to Venus, I saw that it was lava red. A look of confusion went across my face as I thought back to my school boy days learning about the planets. I clearly remember Venus being yellow. Just like the below picture:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/747fde1f78b9.jpg[/atsimg]



But insted, the view of Venus I got from google sky when I zoomed in was this one:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5d96dd61b890.jpg[/atsimg]

Now I know alot of pictures from space are viewed with filters and different wavelengths, but why would they show a filtered picture of Venus, while all the other planets look exactly the same way that I remeber them being while growing up?

I havn't seen any other threads here on ATS bringing this question up, so that leads me to believe this may be a durrrrr

Any body else have the answer for why Venus is lava red now insted of the pastel yellow that I grew up thinking it to be?

It appears to just be a false colour image of Venus. Below is a link with a bunch of different images with different colours and filters.

Link

Hemispheric view of Venus produced by Magellan.

The Magellan Venus Explorer's Guide

Magellan (spacecraft)

The Radar System functioned in three modes: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Altimetry (ALT), and Radiometry (RAD). The instrument cycled through the three modes while observing the surface geology, topography and temperature of Venus using the 3.7-meter parabolic, high-gain antenna and a small fan-beam antenna, located just to the side.

- In Synthetic Aperture Radar mode, the instrument transmitted several thousand long-wave, 12.6-centimeter microwave pulses every second through the high-gain antenna, while measuring the doppler shift of each hitting the surface.

- In Altimetry mode, the instrument interleaved pulses with SAR, and operating similarly with the altimetric antenna, recording information regarding the elevation of the surface on Venus.

- In Radiometry mode, the high-gain antenna was used to record microwave radiothermal emissions from Venus. This data was used to characterize the surface temperature.

The data was collected at 750 kilobits/second to the tape recorder and later transmitted to earth to be processed into usable images, by the Radar Data Processing Subsystem (RDPS), a collection of ground computers operated by JPL.

reply to post by Anonymouth


Yes, I read that too, but Why arnt any of the other planets being displayed this way. Why use filters for something that you can easily see in plain ole regular sunlight?

Jupiter doesnt look different in google sky from what I was taught.
Saturn doesnt look different in googlesky from what I was taught.
and the same goes for the rest of the planets that google sky shows.

So my point here is if the red is just from different filters, then why is google using images with different filters for an image that they are portaying to be the "ACTUAL" image of Venus?

They even have a time stamp next to the planets when you zoom in, as if to say that this picture was taken at such & such certain time.

reply to post by Talltexxxan


Send them an email and ask them, I don't know.

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
Yes, I read that too, but Why arnt any of the other planets being displayed this way. Why use filters for something that you can easily see in plain ole regular sunlight?

Jupiter doesnt look different in google sky from what I was taught.
Saturn doesnt look different in googlesky from what I was taught.
and the same goes for the rest of the planets that google sky shows.

So my point here is if the red is just from different filters, then why is google using images with different filters for something that they dont need to?

They're showing you what the surface of the planet looks like. Otherwise, all you would see would be the tops of the clouds in Venus' very dense atmosphere.

Simple, instead of being an armchair astronomer, go buy a large reflector, and point it up there.

Originally posted by nataylor

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
Yes, I read that too, but Why arnt any of the other planets being displayed this way. Why use filters for something that you can easily see in plain ole regular sunlight?

Jupiter doesnt look different in google sky from what I was taught.
Saturn doesnt look different in googlesky from what I was taught.
and the same goes for the rest of the planets that google sky shows.

So my point here is if the red is just from different filters, then why is google using images with different filters for something that they dont need to?

They're showing you what the surface of the planet looks like. Otherwise, all you would see would be the tops of the clouds in Venus' very dense atmosphere.

So the surface of venus is red? thats news to me. Thanks.

Originally posted by Anonymouth


Simple, instead of being an armchair astronomer, go buy a large reflector, and point it up there.

I have several telescopes but none of them are big enough to get any type of clear image. Plus have you priced one of those large reflector telescopes out? Most be nice to have the size of wallet that you have.
Im just a poor white boy.

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
So the surface of venus is red? thats news to me. Thanks.

Likely, yes. Though not quite as red as the synthetic color from the Magellan data.

From Ask an Astronomer:

If we traveled down through the atmosphere to the surface, we would probably see brownish-red colored rocks. The rocks are probably similar to volcanic rocks here on Earth, but the thick atmopshere blocks a lot of light making the surface kind of dim with a reddish tinge. The bright red/orange pictures of the surface that you see associated with the NASA Magellan project are probably more red than what you would see if you were actually there. For example, if you look at this color picture of the surface, taken by a Russian spacecraft you can see it looks reddish. If you brought the rocks back to Earth light they would probably have a slightly different color, but they're reddish on Venus.

Originally posted by nataylor

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
So the surface of venus is red? thats news to me. Thanks.

Likely, yes. Though not quite as red as the synthetic color from the Magellan data.

From Ask an Astronomer:

If we traveled down through the atmosphere to the surface, we would probably see brownish-red colored rocks. The rocks are probably similar to volcanic rocks here on Earth, but the thick atmopshere blocks a lot of light making the surface kind of dim with a reddish tinge. The bright red/orange pictures of the surface that you see associated with the NASA Magellan project are probably more red than what you would see if you were actually there. For example, if you look at this color picture of the surface, taken by a Russian spacecraft you can see it looks reddish. If you brought the rocks back to Earth light they would probably have a slightly different color, but they're reddish on Venus.

Sweet! mystery solved.
I knew it was probley a durrrrr kinda question, I guess I was just looking in the wrong spots for my answer.

Thanks.

Originally posted by Talltexxxan

Originally posted by Anonymouth


Simple, instead of being an armchair astronomer, go buy a large reflector, and point it up there.

I have several telescopes but none of them are big enough to get any type of clear image. Plus have you priced one of those large reflector telescopes out? Most be nice to have the size of wallet that you have.

Im just a poor white boy.

So cancel your cable Tv for a year, cancel your internet for a year, cancel other bills you can live without, that is enough to pay for a reflector.

Join an astronomy club sky watching night with our kid, get out of the chair, that won't break the bank.

reply to post by Talltexxxan


Saturn was/is having a super massive storm on it right now. I suggest you research further the red appearance of Venus.

reply to post by yourmamaknows

Saturn was/is having a super massive storm on it right now. I suggest you research further the red appearance of Venus.

Once you nurture your interest in astronomy, you will learn that a large storm breaks out every 30 years when Saturn's northern hemisphere experiences summer. It's called the Great White Spot and has been seen for nearly 150 years. A simple knowledge of astronomy will allow you to ignore the ravings of fearmongers.

Originally posted by Anonymouth

Originally posted by Talltexxxan

Originally posted by Anonymouth


Simple, instead of being an armchair astronomer, go buy a large reflector, and point it up there.

I have several telescopes but none of them are big enough to get any type of clear image. Plus have you priced one of those large reflector telescopes out? Most be nice to have the size of wallet that you have.

Im just a poor white boy.

So cancel your cable Tv for a year, cancel your internet for a year, cancel other bills you can live without, that is enough to pay for a reflector.

Join an astronomy club sky watching night with our kid, get out of the chair, that won't break the bank.

edit on 8-9-2011 by Anonymouth because: (no reason given)

I dont own a TV, so no cable to cancel, . Had to take back most of our wedding presents just to help pay bills.

Like I said before. Im just a poor ole white boy.

reply to post by DJW001


I can read same as you can and probably much faster. Your explanations are pallative in nature. You know what I am alluding to here, but the OP does not. BTW, who/what turned off the heat switch?

It isn't just Google Sky that has Venus red, it's red in everything:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8f21eacf95cf.png[/atsimg]

taken from StarWalk App for Ipod

reply to post by WhoDat09

It isn't just Google Sky that has Venus red, it's red in everything:

As explained above, that just happens to be the false color image that best shows Venus' surface details.

Of course its red because of nibiru's rusty hue reflecting off of venus. Gosh...

Lol, jk, but that is def a false color image.

Great post if nothing else than your son being interested in space. Keep his dream alive.

Originally posted by amongus
Of course its red because of nibiru's rusty hue reflecting off of venus. Gosh...

Lol, jk, but that is def a false color image.

Great post if nothing else than your son being interested in space. Keep his dream alive.

Yeah, he's alittle butt head most of the time (as most 3 y/o are) but he is very interested in science. He loves to watch documentaries on the earth, animals and space. Its actually quite amazing that a 3y/o would be so "into" that kinda stuff.

ETA: I put the "butthead" comment in there because 2 days ago he broke my $100 binoculars that my father gave me. *sigh*