This false-colour movie was built with ultraviolet images taken by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft on 22 May 2006. The spacecraft was flying over the northern hemisphere approaching the planet, over
distances ranging between about 39 100 and 22 600 kilometres from the surface.

The images were taken at 365 nanometres, starting respectively 03:30 and 01:45 hours before reaching the pericentre (point of closest approach of the spacecraft to Venus). The complex atmosphere that surrounds the planet is clearly visible.

The true-colour (grey-scale) version of this movie can be downloaded here.