The poles of venus

[PB666]

http://astronomy.com/news/2016/04/esa-finds-a-frigid-surprise-hiding-at-venus-poles

Colder they you might think.

[Shpaget]

The article is an amazing piece of journalism. It makes a vague statement in the title, then proceeds to provide absolutely no actual data to substantiate the claim, except a link to an article behind a pay wall.

[Frida Space]

38 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

The article is an amazing piece of journalism. It makes a vague statement in the title, then proceeds to provide absolutely no actual data to substantiate the claim, except a link to an article behind a pay wall.

Main info:

• Between 24/6 and 11/7/2014, VEX used its accelerometres to measure the atmospheric drag and trace a density profile between 130 and 140 km of altitude
• The data reveals the atmosphere above the poles - never studied in situ before - has an average temperature of 114 K, i.e. 70 K lower than predicted. The density is also very low: at 130 and 140 km, the density is 22% and 40% less than predicted, respectively. At 180 km, the atmosphere is half as dense as we thought
• VEX also discovered two types of waves: atmospheric gravity waves (ripples in density profile) thought to have formed some 40-50 km lower than VEX's altitude, and planetary waves (pushed by the planet's rotation) with a period of around 5 days
• The data is promising because, throughout 2017, ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter will perform aerobraking manoeuvres at Mars, and so will be able to study the Martian atmosphere in a similar way for an entire year, monitoring how these waves and conditions change with distance from the Sun and trace any seasonal pattern

Edited April 23, 2016 by Frida Space

[AngelLestat]

This happen a very high altitude, where the atmosphere density is so thin that only climatologists may find interesting. 
It seems that at lower altitudes the values remains the same.