Venus Dust Ring

  • Released Tuesday, March 12, 2019
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In this visualization we open with a wide view of the inner solar system with the dust ring located at the orbit of Venus. The camera zooms in to a location just beyond the position of STEREO-A to look back at the orbit of Venus. This shows the enhancement of scattering by the dust ring near the greatest elongation of Venus' orbit relative to STEREO-A.

This visualization displays a simulation of a ring of dust at the orbit of the planet Venus. The dust simulation consists of several million particles subjected to forces of gravity, radiation pressure, radiation drag, and solar wind drag from the Sun.
Multiple sources were considered for the dust - Jupiter family comets, main belt asteroids, Oort cloud comets and others. The source most consistent with the observed enhancement were a population of asteroids in the same orbit as Venus.

This visualization shows a view from above the Ecliptic with the orbit of Venus, Earth, STEREO-A and B, and Helios-A which provided observations for the discovery of the dust ring at the orbit of Venus.

This visualization shows an oblique view from above the Ecliptic with the orbit of Venus, Earth, STEREO-A and B, and Helios-A which provided observations for the discovery of the dust ring at the orbit of Venus.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Tuesday, March 12, 2019.
This page was last updated on Monday, January 6, 2025 at 12:13 AM EST.

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