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Two spacecraft worked together to learn about Venus’ magnetic field

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When spacecraft launch to visit distant planets in the solar system, they rarely travel directly from Earth to their target. Because of the orbits of the planets and limitations on fuel, spacecraft often make use of other planets they pass by to get a gravity assist to help them on their way. And that means that spacecraft frequently perform flybys of planets that are not their main focus of study.

Researchers don’t waste any opportunity to learn about other planets though, so spacecraft often take as manyreadings as they can when passing by. For example, both the BepiColumbo spacecraft, on its way to study Mercury, and the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, designed to study the sun, have made recent flybys of Venus. Now, researchers are combining data from both of these missions to learn more about Venus and its magnetic field.

Artist impression of BepiColombo flying by Venus on 10 August 2021. The spacecraft makes nine gravity assist maneouvres (one of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury) before entering orbit around the innermost planet of the Solar System.
Artist impression of the BepiColombo flying by Venus on 10 August 2021. ESA/ATG medialab

Both spacecraft happened to fly past Venus within a few days of each other in August 2021, allowing scientists to get a view of the planet from two different positions using eight different sensors. They were particularly interested in the planet’s magnetic field, as unlike Earth, it does not generate an intrinsic magnetic field, but the interaction of the solar wind and its atmosphere does produce what is called an induced magnetosphere.

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The Solar Orbiter observed the solar winds approaching Venus, while BepiColombo observed the tail of the induced magnetic field. “These dual sets of observations are particularly valuable because the solar wind conditions experienced by Solar Orbiter were very stable. This meant that BepiColombo had a perfect view of the different regions within the magnetosheath and magnetosphere, undisturbed by fluctuations from solar activity,” said  Moa Persson of the University of Tokyo in Kashiwa, Japan, lead author of a paper on the topic that was published in Nature, in a statement.

Artist's impression of Solar Orbiter making a flyby at Venus.
Artist’s impression of the Solar Orbiter making a flyby at Venus. ESA/ATG medialab

The researchers found that the magnetosphere is protecting the planet’s atmosphere from being eroded away by solar winds, which can help us understand more about conditions of habitability.

It also shows how valuable bonus science can be when data is collected from spacecraft passing by a planet by. “The important results of this study demonstrate how turning sensors on during planetary flybys and cruise phases can lead to unique science,” said co-author Nicolas Andre, the coordinator of the Europlanet SPIDER service at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in Toulouse, France.

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Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
Gorgeous image of Venus snapped by the Parker Solar Probe on its way past
When flying past Venus in July 2020, Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument, short for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow — light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside. The prominent dark feature in the center of the image is Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland region on the Venusian surface. Bright streaks in WISPR, such as the ones seen here, are typically caused by a combination of charged particles — called cosmic rays — sunlight reflected by grains of space dust, and particles of material expelled from the spacecraft’s structures after impact with those dust grains. The number of streaks varies along the orbit or when the spacecraft is traveling at different speeds, and scientists are still in discussion about the specific origins of the streaks here. The dark spot appearing on the lower portion of Venus is an artifact from the WISPR instrument.

When flying past Venus in July 2020, Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument, short for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow — light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory/Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher

NASA has shared this gorgeous image of Venus, captured by the Parker Solar Probe on a flyby of the planet in July last year. The probe's main mission is to explore the sun up close and learn about its corona, but it also regularly passes Venus as it uses the planet's gravity to adjust its orbit. The researchers staffing the mission don't let these flybys go to waste, and use the probe's instruments to learn about Venus as well on their way by.

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Artist's impression of Solar Orbiter making a flyby at Venus.

Artist's impression of Solar Orbiter making a flyby at Venus. ESA/ATG medialab

The European Space Agency (ESA)'s Solar Orbiter has already visited the sun up close, following its launch in February this year. But the researchers want the orbiter to get even closer, so to achieve that the orbiter is getting a boost from another planet -- passing by Venus to use the planet's gravity to push it on a path even closer to the sun. That means the orbiter will be swinging by Venus this Christmas on its first gravity assist flyby.

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BepiColombo spacecraft studies Venus on its way to Mercury
An artist's impression visualising the BepiColombo spacecraft flying past Venus.

Space probe BepiColombo was launched in 2018 and is currently zipping through the vast blackness of the solar system on its way to explore Mercury. But on its journey, it has just flown past Venus, and the researchers are making use of this flyby to collect information on our mysterious neighboring planet.

The BepiColombo mission, a joint venture between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Space Agency (JAXA), is a spacecraft full of instruments to study the magnetosphere of Mercury and how this is affected by solar wind. And these same instruments can be used to learn about Venus, which has become a hotspot of research interest since recent evidence suggested there could be potential signs of life in its clouds.

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