A visible-light image of Venus, taken by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter in 1979, shows very little variation from a completely white, featureless ball, as Venus' thick atmosphere prevents any view of its surface, even from Venus orbit. (Pioneer Venus Orbiter Team, NASA, image processing by Ricardo Nunes)

     Clouds photographed in the UV by Pioneer Venus Orbiter, at wavelengths strongly absorbed by sulfur compounds in the atmosphere, show patterns in the clouds caused by upper atmospheric winds. Despite the planet's 244 day rotation period, the upper atmospheric winds, like those in the Earth's upper atmosphere, circulate around the planet once every few days. They do not, however, show Hadley or Farrell cells, parallel to the equatorial plane of the planet, due to the near nonexistence of Coriolis effects on the slowly spinning planet. (Pioneer Venus Orbiter Team, NASA, apod970507)

Labeled topographic map of Venus, created from Magellan images. On the left, the Northern hemisphere, and on the right, the Southern hemisphere. (click on image for much larger map; NASA, USGS, Venera 15, Venera 16, Arecibo Imaging Radar, Planetary Photojournal)

     "Pancake" volcanoes in Alpha Regio region. On the Earth, molten lava pours onto a surface which is ice-cold, in comparison to the temperature of the lava. As a result, a thick solid crust quickly forms, which is difficult for the lava to push forward, causing volcanoes to pile up into fairly steep "cones". On Venus, the much higher surface temperature presumably causes the formation of a thinner crust, which can be more easily pushed forward long distances, so the cone-shaped volcanoes we are familiar with are often replaced by much shallower structures, such as these.

     3-D representation of domed/pancake structures (exaggerated vertically; the structures are much flatter than they appear here) (E. De Jong et al. (JPL), MIPL, Magellan Team, NASA, apod030427)

     Dickinson impact crater and lava flows caused by removal of overburden which kept hot rock below the crater from melting, until it was removed by the impact and explosion which created the crater. Solids ejected by the explosion are piled up around the crater, as on Earth, because of the relatively strong surface gravity; but as in the case of "pancake" volcanoes, the liquids ejected by the crater formation can flow long distances (in this case, well outside the limits of the image).

     Markham impact crater and its lava flows, in an image which shows a much larger area than the one of Dickinson crater. The ejected lavas are able to flow downhill for very long distances, due to the high surface temperatures, and presumably minimal crustal formation.

     Simulated/exaggerated vertical view of rift valley created from Magellan radar images. The cone-like structures seen here are actually almost as flat as the "pancake" volcanoes appear in the exaggerated 3-D image further above. (The Magellan Project, JPL, and NASA, apod960624)

     The larger image above is a closeup of the 5-mile-high volcano in the previous image, Maat Mons, as usually presented, with a 22.5 times vertical exaggeration, to show off its structure in detail. The lower image shows the volcano with correct perspective. The loss of detail in the true-perspective image justifies the exaggeration of the other image, but the exaggeration does give an impression of Venus' surface which is much different from reality. (NASA, JPL, Magellan Project, Planetary Photojournal)

Animation showing the (false-color ultraviolet) appearance of Venus' atmosphere, as observed during the approach of the European Space Agency's Venus Express. (ESA/MPS, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, apod060717)

Visible (on left) and infrared (on right) appearance of Venus' south pole, as observed by the ESA Venus Express, currently in orbit around Venus. On the left, a visible-light (albeit still false-color) image of the day side of the planet; on the right, extreme contrast and enhancement of an infrared image of the night side reveals vortices in the atmospheric motions surrounding the pole. (VIRTIS, ESA)

The probable structure of Venus. A rocky mantle lies above a metallic core. Temperatures in the interior may be high enough to partially melt the core, but are not high enough to produce convective motions in the core, a magnetic field, or tectonic activity. (portion of image from NASA Multimedia Gallery)