These are enhanced versions of four views of the planet Venus taken by the Galileo's Solid State
Imaging System at distances ranging from 1.4 to 2 million miles as the spacecraft receded from
Venus. The pictures in the top row were taken about 4 and 5 days after closest approach, and
those in the bottom row six days after closest approach, 2 hours apart. These show the faint
Venusian cloud features especially clearly. A high-pass filter was applied to bring out broader
global variations in tone. The bright polar hoods are a well-known feature of Venus. Of particular
interest to planetary atmospheric scientists are the complex cloud patterns near the equator, in
the vicinity of the bright subsolar point, where convection is most prevalent. The Galileo Project
is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory; its mission is to study Jupiter and its satellites and magnetosphere after multiple
gravity-assist flybys at Venus and Earth.
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