This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet-light image of theplanet Venus, taken on January 24 1995, when Venus was at a distance of 70.6 million miles (113.6 million kilometres) from Earth.

Venus is covered with clouds made of sulfuric acid, rather than thewater-vapor clouds found on Earth. These clouds permanently shroudVenus' volcanic surface, which has been radar mapped by spacecraft and from Earth-based telescope.

Credit: L. Esposito (University of Colorado, Boulder), and NASA/ESA