This false-colour ultraviolet image of the equatorial region of Venus was obtained by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board ESA’s Venus Express on 22 July 2007 from a distance of about 20 000 km, at a wavelength of 365 nanometres. The octagonal shape of the image is due to the VMC field of view.

It shows, in unprecedented detail, the cloud top over Venus’s equator. What appears as a bright lace is due high concentration of sulphuric acid.