Venus, by Venus Express

Credit: ESA © 2007 MPS/DLR-PF/IDA

This is a false-color image taken with the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board the European Space Agency's (ESA) Venus Express. It shows the full view of the southern hemisphere from the equator (right) to the pole. The south pole is surrounded by a dark oval feature. Moving to the right, away from the pole and towards the equator, we see streaky clouds, a bright mid-latitude band and mottled clouds in the convective sub-solar region.

This image was taken in the ultraviolet at 365 nanometers on 23 July 2007 as Venus Express was 35,000 km from the surface of the planet.