Atmosphere of Venus
In 1761, Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov observed an arc of light surrounding the part of Venus off the Sun's disc at the beginning of the egress phase of the transit and concluded that Venus has an atmosphere. In 1940, Rupert Wildt calculated that the amount of CO in the Venusian atmosphere would raise surface temperature above the boiling point for water. This was confirmed when Mariner 2 made radiometer measurements of the temperature in 1962. In 1967, Venera 4 confirmed that the atmosphere consisted primarily of carbon dioxide.
Extraterrestrial vortex
Venus has two large long-lived pairs of inverted anticyclones, one pair near each pole (polar vortices), discovered in 2006 by the Venus Express probe. Venus's southern pole vortex is the size of Europe and starts at the lower clouds of its atmosphere (42 kilometers from the surface) to the upper clouds of the atmosphere (63 kilometers from the surface). The vortex's elements are constantly being broken apart and coming back together as the vortex circles every 2.2 days. "The vortex is never destroyed, but it evolves continuously between morphologies" or shapes, Garate-Lopez said. Two centers of rotation of the 12-mile-high (20 kilometers) storm, which exist at different altitudes, rarely ever line up.