The BepiColombo space mission observed the leakage of oxygen and carbon from Venus

On its way to Mercury, the BepiColombo space mission, launched in 2018, passed close to Venus. Many of the instruments on board were then turned on. These include the MSA Ion Mass Spectrometer, developed by the Laboratory for Plasma Physics (LPP*) in collaboration with ISAS-JAXA, MPS Solar System Research and IDA. The high resolution of this instrument made it possible to identify the flow of carbon and oxygen ions emanating from the magnetosphere, caused by the interaction of charged particles in the solar wind and the atmosphere of Venus. This observation provides information about the dynamics of this induced magnetosphere and about the processes occurring in the atmosphere of this planet.

These results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy:
Lina Hadid, Dominique Delcourt, Yoshifumi Saito et al., BepiColombo, observations of cold oxygen and carbon ions on the flanks of the induced magnetosphere of Venus. Natural Astronomy (2024).

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*LPP: CNRS joint research unit, Paris-PSL Observatory, Sorbonne University, Paris-Saclay University, Ecole Polytechnique, Polytechnic Institute of Paris, 91120 Palaiseau, France.