[quote=" http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002817/"]
Come back, Venus.....
[float=right][img3="This image is so, so beautiful, and so, so sad.
Bye bye, Venus Credit: ISAS / JAXA"]http://www.planetary.org/image/fig3b_lg.png[/img3][/float]
The Planetary Society Blog By Emily Lakdawalla
Dec. 9, 2010 | 21:04 PST | Dec. 10 05:04 UTC
[img3="Akatsuki's cameras were working fine two days after it flew past Venus; these three images were taken with the UV1, IR1, and LIR cameras, respectively. The UV1 and IR1 cameras take images in wavelengths where the available light is from the Sun, so they viewed Venus as a crescent. The LIR camera is at a longer wavelength where Venus emits heat, so sees all of the planet's atmosphere glowing with thermal radiation. The UV1 & IR1 images are artificially colorized. [ ISAS / JAXA]"]http://www.planetary.org/image/fig4_lg.png[/img3]
<<According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, the photos were taken with Akatsuki about 600,000 kilometers from Venus. This image is actually good news, although it's little consolation: it's proof positive that the science instruments are healthy. They actually tested three of the cameras: one that takes images in ultraviolet, two in infrared. The images are very similar to the Akatsuki departure shots of Earth, taken less than seven months ago.
It happened that Venus scientist David Grinspoon, who was one of several American co-investigators recently named to be participants on the Akatsuki team, was on Facebook when I saw these images being posted by numerous Japanese space fans. I asked him what he thought about them, and he said, "Well, my initial reaction is that they are poignant and heartbreaking." He went on: "To have a perfectly functioning spacecraft with all those great instruments make it all that way across the depths, and then because of some problem with a 12 minute operation, to go sailing off back into the blackness..."
How beautiful, yet awful!>>[/quote]