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| Subject: Venus springs ozone layer surprise Sat Oct 08, 2011 4:18 am | |
| Scientists have discovered that Venus has an ozone layer.
The thin layer, which is hundred of times less dense than the Earth's, was discovered by the European Space Agency's Venus Express craft, researchers report in the journal Icarus.
Until now, ozone layers have only been detected in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars.
The find could help astronomers refine their hunt for life on other planets.
The European spacecraft spied the ozone layer when focusing on stars through Venus' atmosphere.
The distant stars appeared fainter than expected, because the ozone layer absorbed some of their ultraviolet light.
The paper's lead author Franck Montmessin, of the LATMOS atmospheric research centre in France, explained that Venus' ozone layer sits 100km up; about three times the height of our own.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15203281 |
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