Venus
September 23, 1996 - This global view of the surface of Venus is centered at 90 degrees east longitude. Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the three eight-month cycles of Magellan radar mapping are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create this image. Magellan obtained coverage of 98 percent of the surface of Venus. Remaining gaps are filled with data from previous Venus missions, the Venera 15 and 16 radar and Pioneer-Venus Orbiter altimetry, and data from Earth-based radar observations from the Arecibo radio telescope. Simulated color is used to enhance small-scale structures. The simulated hues are based on color images obtained by the Venera 13 and 14 landing craft. The bright feature near the center of the image is Ovda Regio, a mountainous region in the western portion of the great Aphrodite equatorial highland. The dark areas scattered across the Venusian plains consist of extremely smooth deposits associated with large meteorite impacts.
Size: 4200px × 4200px
Photo credit: © Stocktrek Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: aphrodite, circles, color, composite, craters, deposits, equator, full, geography, geology, global, globe, highlands, image, impact, meteorites, mosaic, mountainous, object, ovda, photography, plains, planets, regio, regions, single, solar, space, sphere, square, surface, system, terra, terrain, territory, texture, topography, venus, venusian, view
