X-Raying the Dark Side of Venus - Scatter from Venus Magnetotail?
This work analyzes the X-ray, EUV and UV emission apparently coming from the Earth-facing (dark) side of Venus as observed with Hinode/XRT and SDO/AIA during a transit across the solar disk occurred in 2012. We have measured significant X-Ray, EUV and UV flux from Venus dark side. As a check we have also analyzed a Mercury transit across the solar disk, observed with Hinode/XRT in 2006. We have used the latest version of the Hinode/XRT Point Spread Function (PSF) to deconvolve Venus and Mercury X-ray images, in order to remove possible instrumental scattering. Even after deconvolution, the flux from Venus shadow remains significant while in the case of Mercury it becomes negligible. Since s…