CHAPTER 7 – THE SHAPE SHIFTING PLANET

Venus goes through phases like our Moon. At a certain point in its orbit, relative to the Earth, Venus will appear as a “half-moon” shape. This is easy to predict. The problem is that Venus never matches this prediction. Venus is either a few days early or a few days late. The Moon goes through its phases like clock-work and so too should Venus. It is inconceivable that it does not.

Let us review the facts. Either light is not behaving the way it should in the vicinity of Venus, or the spherical form of Venus is undergoing change. I do not see how light could be the problem in this case, since the light we are seeing is being reflected off the top of the Venusian atmosphere. The refraction of light cannot possibly be the cause of the problem since we are not seeing light which is coming up through the atmosphere. We are merely seeing the Sun’s light being reflected off the day-side of Venus. The astronomers are puzzled by the position of the terminator (line between light and dark parts of the image) of Venus. Sometimes it is too far towards the night side and at other times too far towards the day side. The terminator is therefore “waving” back and forth, to and away from the Sun – over a period of months.

The Phase Anomaly of Venus can only be caused by varying lighting conditions on Venus. Since Venus has a thick atmosphere and two possible Polar Holes, it is apparent that large scale fluctuations in the Venusian atmosphere may be a contributing factor. Now that we have identified the many factors which are at work, the solution will fall perfectly into place. The Phase Anomaly is most apparent at dichotomy when Venus has a “half-moon” shape and the terminator should be a perfectly straight line. It is at these times obvious that it is not a straight line. Detecting the phase anomaly at other parts of the Venusian phase is much more difficult.

After all these experiments (omitted from this summary), Brinton and Moore are thus testifying to the fact that the Polar regions are much brighter than they should be. They also recognize that this brightness is considerably variable. These two astronomers are testifying to the existence of the “Horns of Venus”. What they did not mention is that these Horns could not possibly be lit by the Sun since they lie beyond where the terminator should be. What if the Horns are being lit by light from inside Venus? Or by a luminous Venusian atmosphere?

Let me emphasize the key issue here. Whenever astronomers speak of the Phase Anomaly of Venus, they keep emphasizing and concentrating on the Venusian terminator and the fact that it is wrongly placed. What they tend to skimp over so often is that the cusps are really the problem. The problem is not the terminator. The problem lies at the cusps. It is the abnormal lighting of the cusps which extends beyond the semi-circle into the night side of Venus that is the problem. It is these cusps which are lit for a distance beyond the semi-circle. Brinton and Moore did realize this, but they did not emphasize it enough.

Let me point out another simple and yet highly relevant fact. If the Venusian dichotomy occurs late, one can then indeed point to some atmospheric phenomenon. Remember that the planet’s orbit does not change. The planet is moving around the Sun exactly in accordance with expectations. The planet is in the right place at the right time. Hence the changing form of the planet is due to something on the planet itself. Now if the Venusian phase is retarded, then one might have to look for dark matter in the atmosphere which is reducing some of its reflectivity. In other words part of the planet must be lit by the Sun, but for some reason it is too dark to see. But half the time the Venusian phase is accelerated. Parts of Venus are lighting up before it is in a position to receive light from the Sun.

This is of critical importance. Brasch noted that the phase was accelerated by almost two weeks at times. Now how can we see parts of Venus where the Sun’s light cannot possible reach? Remember we’re not seeing refracted light from behind the planet. We are seeing light emanating directly from the sun-lit portion of the planet. Clearly the planet is lit by more light than can be accounted for by the Sun alone. Where is this light coming from? As Brinton and Moore realized, the real problem is related to the unnatural lighting in the polar regions. What is lighting up the Venusian poles? Clearly, it is not just a case of bright aerosols in the upper atmosphere. No matter how reflective the aerosols are, they will still not be seen if lit by the light of the Sun alone. They must therefore either be producing their own light or light from another source must be the culprit.

The Hot Polar Caps
 

When the Pioneer Venus Orbiter flew over the Venusian poles, it discovered long elongated features stretching 4,000 Km across both poles. These features are in the area where the Venusian Polar Holes should be. In 1983 Tim Schofield and Dier reported in “Nature”:

“The Venusian polar dipoles are long-lived, elongated, warm features seen in images of thermal emission from the polar cloud tops of the planet. They are almost 4,000 Km across, are centered close to the pole, and appear to rotate with a period of approximately 3 days retrograde.”

The feature is not only bright, but there seems to be a “dent” in the polar cloud structure:

“Detailed comparisons of the data sets indicate that this (polar collar temperature) inversion fills and the cloud top sinks as a dipole hotspot is approached, suggesting that the dipole is a combination of temperature and cloud phenomenon.”

The polar cloud layer is 15 Km lower than the rest of the venusian atmosphere. Could this layer fall even more if air is being sucked into Venus?

Tim Schofield (NASA):

“The polar regions of Venus ought to be cold compared with the equator. However, the dipole is warmer than the equator, and the polar atmosphere above the cloud tops is warmer than the equator up to 90 Km due to descending air.”

Air moving away from the equator can surely only be cooling down as it moves ever further away from direct sun-light. How can this air possibly become warmer as it moves further away from the equator? What if Venus is hollow and a tremendous amount of heat is escaping from inside it? Could this be why the polar dipole is hotter than the equator?

Light Beneath the Clouds
 

Due to the thick Cytherean atmosphere and its misty makeup, it was expected to be quite dark on the Venusian surface. In 1976 Keldysh wrote:

“Another mystery in the Venera 9 pictures is the apparent shadows cast by the rocks. Avduevsky points out that as the lander descended, it took continual measurements of the illumination from all sides. It recorded the sort of diffuse light expected under a cloud cover. ‘Then it landed, and all of a sudden these shadows.’ If they are shadows, they would indicate a directed light source in the Venus atmosphere, possible a rift in the clouds or something more exotic.”

Another article in 1975 also questioned the Venera 9 photographs:

“An important question is why the surprisingly sharp rocks also seem to have surprisingly sharp shadows. If the Venusian atmosphere diffuses incoming sunlight as broadly as has been expected, why are not the shadows either faint or multidirectional if not completely absent.”

A further study of the night side of Venus suggests that there is some sort of light/heat coming from beneath the clouds on the night side of the planet. In 1984 two Australian scientists, D. Allen and J. Crawford reported in “Nature”:

 “Observations of the dark side of the planet Venus at infrared wavelengths . . . have shown it to be anomalously bright in portions of this waveband.”

The images produced by Allen and Crawford do not show any reduction in the intensity of lighting far away from the Venusian terminator. The intensity of infrared radiation at the terminator is the same as that far away from the terminator towards the midnight sector. Could this indicate that the light is coming from another direction? From the surface of the polar regions? I say this because the six images presented in their paper always have the infrared radiation occurring in bands which lie parallel to the equator. Even when there is little infrared radiation, the “clouds” giving off this radiation stretch all the way to the midnight sector. In fact, the scientists admitted that “the nature of the cloud structure is far from certain.” Could this mean that the light which produces the phenomenon comes from the North and South Poles of the planet thereby lighting up the cloud in broad bands at the same latitude?
 

The “Y” and “W” Markings on Venus

According to radar measurements Venus has a 243 day axial rotation. Measurements of a great many ultraviolet photographs of the cloud tops shows them rotating about the planet in a mere 4 days! This phenomenon is known as ‘super-rotation’ and no one know what causes it. Why should the clouds rotate about the planet faster than the planet itself? Where does the energy for this come from? I think I can show that there is a connection between the Phase Anomaly of Venus and the super-rotation. The super-rotation was only discovered when satellites went to Venus. It turns out that the Earth’s atmosphere has a far lesser degree of super-rotation as well.

Ultraviolet photographs taken in the 1960s showed the apparent movement of dark features in the Venusian atmosphere. These included the Y and W shapes which are centered on the equator. How long lived is the “Y” feature on Venus? Boyer and Guerin felt it could survive for decades, while Beebe, Scott and Reese felt it appeared at random and only lasted for 8 – 16 days. The “Y” feature is enormous, and covers almost half of Venus. What causes it?

Nobody knows. I think Beebe, Scott and Reese are right, and that the “Y” appears at random and then dissipates. But why should a “Y” form consistently? The “Y” is exactly the same size each time. Venus rotates so slowly and the “Y” races across the planet’s surface. It is not linked to any geographical feature. But it is produced consistently. The “W” feature is equally mysterious. It too covers half the planet.
 

What if the “Y” and “W” features are both caused by the “breathing” of Venus? What if this breathing of Venus is driving the tremendous super-rotation of the planet’s atmosphere? I would now like to offer a suggestion as to what drives the super-rotation of the Venusian atmosphere and what causes the “Y” and “W” features. What if air is pumped out of Inner Venus and it rushes out high in the atmosphere, equatorward? The rotation of Venus would then deflect the air in the direction in which the planet is rotating.

Thus when the air currents from the north meet the air currents from the south, they have both been diverted in the same direction. This combines their strength and a powerful river of air rushes along the equator in the direction of the rotation of the planet. This powerful torrent of air then gives the atmosphere a hefty shove in the direction of the rotation of Venus. Hence the atmosphere begins to flow faster than Venus rotates. It’s as simple as that.

New questions come to mind. For example: Why does the “Y” cover approximately half of Venus? The “Y” covers one entire hemisphere (west to east). I think the “Y” shape is created on the night side of Venus. Meanwhile, on the day side the following is happening: Remember R. M. Baum’s Radial spokes at the subsolar point? Hot air is rising at the subsolar point. Air currents are carrying away the hot air in all directions. The planetary and atmospheric rotation might deform the radial spokes so that they are especially elongated in the direction of the planet’s rotation. Suddenly large masses of air come rushing out of the Polar Holes.

They clash with air currents moving away from the equator. The rest of the atmosphere is super-rotating and the predominant effect is a push in the direction of the rotation of the planet. These colliding air currents then merge to form a “W” lying on its side. Thus, I think the “Y” forms on the night side of Venus and, at the same time, a “W” forms on the day side. Both these dusky marking being the result of air blowing out of Venus.

These formations are “one time” events. Air is not continually flowing out of Inner Venus (as we have noted with the telescopic observations). Strong air currents come out for short periods and then it stops. The “Y” and “W” markings are then carried around the planet by the super-rotation which they helped create. The markings then slowly dissipate or are overcome by vigorous new outflows.

Let us suppose that air is later sucked into the inner part of Venus. Would this be responsible for an effect similar to water going down the drain? Would this perhaps be why the polar dipole spins even faster than the rest of the sphere? Could this sucking in and blowing out is responsible for all the weather on this very slowly rotating planet?
 

When Venus Breathes

An important theme so far has been that Venus “breathes” by way of air flowing into and out of an inner cavity. The amount of “breathing” is considerable. Enormous volumes of air probably flow into and out of this planet. Several decades ago Gerard Kuiper discovered that there were daily fluctuations in the infrared spectrum of Venus. No one knew why this was occurring. L. G. Young et al. from Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, studied the Venusian spectra nightly during the autumn of 1972. Their study was reported in the “Astrophysical Journal”:

“Astronomers are well enough acquainted with periodic variations in the light from the stars, but a variable planet is quite a different matter. However, the planet Venus shows regular changes in the spectrum of its atmosphere, according to four scientists at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The strengths of carbon dioxide lines in the Venusian atmosphere swing through a four-day cycle.”

Could this mean that the atmosphere inside Venus is different to the atmosphere on the outside of the planet? Could airflow into and out of the planet be causing this variable spectrum? Is the atmosphere being changed by something inside the planet? Is an Inner Sun changing the chemistry of the atmosphere in some way?

All the above taken together indicates that the entire Venusian atmosphere in a given hemisphere moves to and from the polar regions. What makes it difficult to detect is that the entire atmosphere is affected and it moves quite slowly. Some of the air is sucked into this hole which causes the entire outer atmosphere to be lowered by 1 Km. The only reason the entire Venusian atmosphere can move up and down like this is if it is being sucked into a hole and then expelled later. A rise and fall of 1 Km. In the Venusian atmosphere means that 115 million cubic miles of air is being sucked into Venus and then being expelled. This corresponds to approximately 1.1% of the total Venusian atmosphere.

Since the Venusian atmosphere rotates about the planet in a mere 4 days, and the breathing also occurs in cycles of 4 days, it would seem that all of this must be driven in some way by an Inner Sun. One of the questions raised by scientists is: Where does the mechanical energy come from? The Inner Sun’s activities seem to be the basis for this. Exactly how is somewhat of a mystery. There seems to be some sort of pressure balancing act going on between Inner and Outer Venus which is the cause for this strange cycle.