Venus new bright blemish.

[CalliArcale]

Could well be. In the absence of useful information, people's minds are of course going to things they're familiar with, so the suggestions of meteors and volcanoes are not surprising. We know both exist, and we know both can happen on Venus.

It might be some kind of large-scale weather pattern that we've just never seen on Venus before.

 

[xXTheOneRavenXx]

How long have we actually been observing Venus on a regular bases? I'm sure the record doesn't compare to the study of weather patterns on Earth, so you quite right.

 

[3488]

This could well a Cytherean only event, but so far

I said it in the comments for the article and I will say it again.

I think its a Magmacane or Lavacane? A hurricane like storm that forms over a large area of Magma or Lava.

We know Venus goes through catastrophic surfacing events where magma covers a large portion of the surface, I would presume in the atmosphere a liquid magma surface could provide energy to drive large storms as it would here on Earth.

I like that very much 70VirginisB.

Also a lava lake would fit in with my earlier post regarding the low lying plain at the same latitude, based on MAGELLAN Venus Orbter RADAR imagery & data as well as the hot area on the Venus Express IR data obtained a while back.

You are correct that a lava lake would stir the atmosphere up as an area of superheated gas would rise creating a cyclonic weather system as the hot gas would lower the atmospheric pressure above.

Please ESA, release some data, some IR data concerning the White Spot, i.e is it hot or cold, chemical composition, how does it compare to the surrounding cloud deck, does it extend into the Stratosphere of Venus, was there a surge in lightning, temperature of the surface beneath at the time, etc???

Anyway I've tracked down some decent sized Venus Express imagery at long last.

Venus White Spot, UV image Venus Express. Sunday 19th July 2009.

A little slide I did.

Venus White Spot, UV image Venus Express. Wednesday 15th July 2009. Four days prior to being spotted from Earth.

Andrew Brown.

 

[CommonMan]

Good pictures, is there anything in the works at Nasa to check this white spot out to give us more information?

 

[3488]

Hi CommonMan,

NASA currently does not have anything close to Venus.

I did think perhaps the SPITZER Space Telescope could observe, but Venus appears too close to the Sun.
Graphic showing position of Venus from SPITZER on Friday 7th August 2009 @ 00:00 UTC.

I did also think of the Mercury bound MESSENGER spacecraft. I knew that MESSENGER was not close to Venus, but did think that perhaps some remote observations with the MDIS may be possible. Same problem as with SPITZER though, Venus appears too close to the Sun, though from MESSENGER makes a nice conjunction with Mars in Taurus to the S E of the Pleiades / M45.

Graphic showing position of Venus from MESSENGER on Friday 7th August 2009 @ 00:00 UTC.

Other than these remote possilities, cannot think of anything else that NASA could currently use.

Andrew Brown.

 

[MeteorWayne]

ESA's Venus Express is current orbiting and operating and should be able to shed some light on this. Of course, we know it takes a while for ESA data to be released, so it may be a while...