SOME of the most striking pictures we have of Venus weren鈥檛 published by a space agency. And they took 29 years to appear.
In 1975, Venera 9 became the first probe to send back pictures from the surface of another planet: fuzzy images of the rock-strewn Venusian landscape. But their poor quality meant they were soon consigned to obscurity.
Until 2004. That year, computer researcher Don Mitchell unveiled , created by applying modern processing to the archived image data.
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Jump forward another decade. Today, things move a lot faster: amateurs enjoy fine-tuning images fresh from the depths of space. Occasionally, they beat the agencies to it 鈥� as they did , for example. Most of this data comes from NASA; there鈥檚 even talk that fans might keep the Hubble Space Telescope turning out new pictures (see 鈥�Get Hubble out of trouble: how you can rescue an icon鈥�).
The European Space Agency has been more tight-fisted, concerned about its scientists being scooped. This is self-defeating. Fan efforts are no competition for rigorous analyses, and the agency could do with the public support they embody (see 鈥�Comet mission must not keep space fans in the dark鈥�). ESA should publish images when they鈥檙e fresh and exciting 鈥� not leave them to be dug up later.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淕et snap happy in space鈥�
