Flying over the cloudy world -- science updates from Venus Express

This ultraviolet image of the Venus southern hemisphere was taken by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft on 15 May 2006, when the spacecraft was flying at about 66500 kilometres distance from the planet. In this image (taken at 365 nanometres) the South Pole is near the terminator, just above the centre of the image. The complex atmosphere that surrounds the planet is clearly visible. Near the pole we see spiralling clouds surrounding the polar vortex, away from the pole we see cloud features of the upper cloud deck at approximately 70 kilometres altitude. Credits: ESA/MPS, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany