Korea VirusResearch Institute

Venus is known as a twin of the Earth in our solar system. Venus and Earth have similar mass and size, and both have atmospheres. However, Venus is not yet well understood for its atmospheric properties. For example, we still do not know about its unidentified absorbers, which is so-called “unknown absorber”, that are clearly visible at the ultraviolet wavelength near Venus’s cloud top level. Clear temporal variations of the abundance of the unknown absorbers have been reported, but it is not explained which processes are involved.

To better understand the atmosphere of Venus, Yeon Joo Lee and her colleagues conducted an international Venus observation campaign in 2020. The team used three spacecraft and six ground-based telescopes to observe the reflected light by the planet over a broad wavelength range.

The results of the campaign were published recently in Planetary Science Journal (PSJ), entitled "Reflectivity of Venus’s Dayside Disk During the 2020 Observation Campaign: Outcomes and Future Perspectives" (https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ac84d1).

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) Journal Author Series interviewed Yeon Joo Lee about the manuscript. We share the YouTube video below.

(AAS Journal author series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFhVT3VzlwKrArGdcNhtSCF4NbDBd6K5)