Venus Cloud Tops Viewed by Hubble

This ultraviolet-light image of Venus was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on Jan. 24, 1995, when Venus was at a distance of 70.6 million miles (113.6 million kilometers) from Earth. Venus is covered with clouds made of sulfuric acid, rather than the water-vapor clouds found on Earth. These clouds permanently shroud Venus' volcanic surface, which has been radar mapped by spacecraft and from Earth-based telescope.