The BepiColombo space mission, launched in 2018, recently encountered Venus at close range, activating numerous onboard instruments. Among them, the MSA ion mass spectrometer, developed by the Plasma Physics Laboratory (LPP*) in collaboration with ISAS-JAXA, MPS Solar System Research, and IDA, was instrumental. With its remarkable resolution, this instrument facilitated the detection of a stream of carbon and oxygen ions originating from the magnetosphere. These ions are generated by the interaction between charged particles in the solar wind and Venus’s atmosphere. This observation offers insights into the dynamics of the induced magnetosphere and the atmospheric processes at play on the planet.
The findings of this research have been published in the journal Nature Astronomy:
Lina Hadid, Dominique Delcourt, Yoshifumi Saito et al., “BepiColombo observations of cold oxygen and carbon ions in the flank of the induced magnetosphere of Venus.” Nature Astronomy (2024).
