The color of the surface of venus.
Multispectral images of the basaltic surface of Venus obtained by Venera 13 were processed to remove the effects of orange-colored incident radiation resulting from interactions with the thick Venusian atmosphere. At visible wavelengths the surface of Venus appears dark and without significant color. High-temperature laboratory reflectance spectra of basaltic materials indicate that these results are consistent with mineral assemblages bearing either ferric or ferrous iron. A high reflectance in the near-infrared region observed at neighboring Venera 9 and 10 sites, however, suggests that the basaltic surface material contains ferric minerals and thus may be relatively oxidized.
Pieters
C M
CM
Head
J W
JW
Pratt
S
S
Patterson
W
W
Garvin
J
J
Barsukov
V L
VL
Basilevsky
A T
AT
Khodakovsky
I L
IL
Selivanov
A S
AS
Panfilov
A S
AS
Gektin
Y M
YM
Narayeva
Y M
YM