Meteors, as ordinary people call them, are pieces of rock the size of dust particles, sometimes a little larger than pebbles, that come from outer space and burn up in the atmosphere of a celestial body. The light emitted as they burn also reveals the composition of the tiny celestial pebble or dust grain itself, which in turn tells us what kind of celestial body the piece came from.
Amíg a világűrben utazik vagy kering, e porszemnek, égi kavicsnak meteoroid a neve. Ha belép egy égitest légkörébe és ott felizzik, akkor meteornak hívjuk. Amennyiben elég nagy darab volt, és ebből valami eléri a felszínt, a lepottyant darab neve meteorit.
In a newly published paper, soon to be published in the journal Icarus, two researchers explore the possibility that a future spacecraft orbiting Venus might be able to make first-class meteor observations.
The researchers' calculations showed that celestial dust particles glow in the upper layers of Venus' atmosphere, and they shine brighter, but for a slightly shorter period of time, than their counterparts on Earth. About the research By Universe Today counting in.
What is the benefit of this type of observation and counting of meteors?
Countless particles of different sizes circulate in interplanetary space, and among them we can easily count the smallest ones using suitable detectors installed on space probes. Such a detector, for example, was on the Cassini space probe, which can count and examine particles no larger than a thousandth of a millimeter in size.
We can also observe and count those larger than a meter in length using the appropriate telescope. This can now also be done by ground-based amateur astronomers using their telescopes that achieve the appropriate magnification.
However, we do not have a tool to measure those in the intermediate range, that is, those that could become meteoroids in the planet's atmosphere. Venus would be suitable as a “planet-sized detector” for this purpose.
The European Space Agency is planning its own probe to Venus for 2032, Invision which will make high-resolution radar measurements and weather observations from orbit around the planet. The researchers ran their calculations to see if the spacecraft's meteor-watching camera makes sense.
The calculations led to the fact that meteor flashes can be detected in the atmosphere of Venus 1.5 to 2.5 times more often than in the atmosphere of Earth. According to the calculations, Venusian meteors glow at very high altitudes in the atmosphere, far above the cloud layer, and are much brighter than their terrestrial counterparts. This also means that meteor-watching instruments that detect meteors in terrestrial conditions will work more efficiently around Venus.
The researchers do not consider the investigations and calculations that I have come up with in this. I would also like to calculate what a probe orbiting Venus, not at a fixed altitude, but in an elliptical orbit, could measure in this way from meteorites. In addition, they also pointed out that it is also possible to see something similar to meteorites of 10 meters in size that enter the atmosphere of Jupiter and burn up there in the atmosphere of Venus using appropriate ground-based telescopes.
The researchers are confident that, based on their calculations, it may be possible to put a meteor camera on board planned Venus probes from either the European Space Agency or NASA. The researchers noted that any celestial body with an atmosphere can be hit by meteorites, from giant planets to their moons.
