Water Vapour Around Venus

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30480, 30 June 1964, Page 6

Water Vapour Around Venus

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter)

BALTIMORE.

“Definitive” proof of water vapour in the upper atmosphere of Venus has been announced by the Johns Hopkins University. For the first time, highly accurate measurements of the amount of water vapor • around the planet were also reported. . •

The new findings, which should end scientific controversy over whether the Venus atmosphere is dry, are the result of a recent daytime unmanned balloon flight to study Venus by means of a unique robot telescope system.

The study was directed by Dr. John Strong, director of the Hopkins astrophysics laboratory. He first discovered evidence of water vapour in the Venus upper atmosphere as the result of a manned balloon flight in 1959. The 1959 measurements were highly inaccurate, according to Dr. Strong, with a possible error of about 80 per cent. As a result of the new flight, the amount of water vapour above the clouds which encircle Venus has now been established- to within 5 per cent.' The . quantity of water vapour found, Dr. Strong reported, “compares with the tipper atmosphere surrounding the earth. Since it is known that carbon dioxide exists on Venus,” the astronomer said, “proof of water vapour forces us to re-examine every previous calculation made concerning the possibility of some sort of life existing on the planet." Dr. Strong also said the new data suggests that the clouds seen around Venus may possibly be composed of water, not dust, as many astronomers believe.. Future flights are being planned by the Hopkins scientists to study these clouds. It has not been possible

to detect water with certainty from earthbound observations because of the damp lower layer of the earth’s atmosphere. In the Hopkins balloon flight, the telescope was carried to an altitude of 87,500 ft. above most of the water vapour in the earth’s atmosphere. A spectrometer measured the-water vapour by its absorption of certain infrared wave lengths in sunlight reflected by Venusian clouds. Dr. Strong estimated that the new technique of unmanned daytime balloon astronomy, which he has pioneered, will be capable of providing about 25 per cent more astronomical information than has been available before.