NASA’s MESSENGER and European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft will observe Venus together on June 6, helping the scientists to view close-up images of the brightest object after the Sun and the Moon in the sky from two vantage points.

Venus Express has been going around Venus since April 11, 2006, whereas Messenger will be flying by Venus while on its way to Mercury. Not only the planet, Venus will be seen through these two spacecraft, but also many Earth-based observatories and telescopes in orbit, around the Earth will witness the planet at the same time.

MESSENGER’s (MErcury Surface Space ENvironment GEochemistry and Ranging mission) closest approach to Venus will be when it passes just 337 kilometres (210 miles) above its surface. At that point of time Venus Express will be behind Venus, but at the same time it will also be able to view many of the same regions imaged by MESSENGER. On the basis of these images scientists will compare the data gathered by the two spacecraft.

Venus Express, ESA’s first mission to Venus, was launched on Nov. 9, 2005 whereas NASA’s Messenger was launched on Aug. 3, 2004. MESSENGER will image Venus for 30 hours and then again it will focus on its final target, Mercury. It will reach Mercury in March, 2011.

According to a team of experts at NASA, Jupiter is changing its stripes, a process which can be due to the change of seasons on this giant planet.

These dramatic changes are being captured by the aging Hubble Space Telescope. The changes are due to the change in the color of the planet’s cloud bands which are turning brown from white. Scientists at the space center have also stated that this is not the first time that the planet is changing its rings.

According to these researchers Jupiter does not stay in the same color all the time and they are lucky to witness the belts and the bands change color at the same time.

Since Jupiter’s year is twelve times that as on Earth the climatic changes are also slow. The difference in the heat of the Sun as received by the planet is the main cause of this change on the surface of Jupiter and along its rings.

Since planets orbit in an elliptical orbit their distance from the sun keeps on changing which further changes the amount of heat and light received by the planets.