Space Station Info :: Nine Planet Solar System :: Space Venus :: Space Flybys

Space Flybys

Some space probes en route to other destinations have used flybys of Venus to raise their speed by means of the gravitational slingshot method. These comprise the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn (two flybys). Oddly, during Cassini's assessment of the radiofrequency emissions of Venus with its radio and plasma wave science instrument during both the 1998 and 1999 flybys, it saw absolutely no high-frequency radio waves (0.125 to 16 MHz), which are commonly associated with lightning. This is in direct opposition to the findings of the Soviet Venera missions 20 years earlier.

It is postulated that perhaps if Venus does have lightning; it might be some type of low-frequency electrical activity, due to the fact that radio signals cannot penetrate the ionosphere at frequencies below about 1 megahertz.

An examination by physicist Donald Gurnett of the University of Iowa of radio emissions of Venus by the Galileo spacecraft during its gravity support flyby in 1990 did expose what were interpreted at the time to be indicative of lightning. But the Galileo probe was over 60 times as distant to Venus as was Cassini during its flyby, making its observations considerably less important. To this day it remains a obscurity as to whether or not Venus does in fact have lightning in its atmosphere.

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Physical Characteristics of Venus

Atmosphere
Surface Features
Venus Moons

Observations And Explorations Of Venus

Historical Observations of Venus
Phases Of Venus
Early Flybys of Venus
Early Landings of Venus
Venus Early Orbiters
Pioneer Venus
Further Soviet Successes
Venus Vega Lander
Magellan Venus
Venus Recent Flybys