NASA

Venus, Magellan Mosaic

The surface of Venus, mapped by radar through permanent cloud, its colours coding height rather than appearance, from four years of Magellan orbits.

Venus, Magellan Mosaic
Venus, Magellan Mosaic
Venus, Magellan Mosaic shown in a limewash reading corner beside an armchair and a floor lamp - scale render at 40 × 40 cm
Venus, Magellan Mosaic shown in a graphite plaster wall at night, lit by a console lamp - scale render at 40 × 40 cm
Venus, Magellan Mosaic shown in a beamed room with a greige plaster wall above a long oak sideboard - scale render at 40 × 40 cm
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Material
Size (cm)
Frame
Specification
40 × 40 cm
3 mm Aluminium
No Frame
Mount Kit Included
Price
$140

Free shipping - Arrives in 5-7 days

About this work

No camera and no human eye has ever seen the ground this image maps: Venus keeps its surface under a permanent, unbroken layer of cloud. From 1990 to 1994 the Magellan spacecraft carried a synthetic aperture radar around the planet, bouncing radio signals through the cloud, off the hidden surface, and reading its shape from the echoes that came back, until 98 per cent of Venus had been imaged.

The colours are heights: the mosaic is coded to elevation against the 'Planetary Radius (km)' legend printed in its lower right. Gaps in Magellan's coverage are filled with radar from the Earth-based Arecibo Observatory, and the hemisphere, centred at 180 degrees east longitude, is drawn in orthographic projection, simulating a view from a distance. Magellan itself imaged the surface at about 100 metres; the full-planet composite resolves about 3 kilometres.

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Materials

Metal
The edge of a Madtag aluminium print, a thin bright line, floating clear of a dark wall.

Nothing between you and the picture.

  • The surface for work that wants light.
  • Colour at full strength; blacks hold their depth.
  • Sealed under gloss: no frame, no glazing.
  • 3 mm aluminium composite, floats clear of the wall.
Arrives flat, hanging system included
Paper
A Madtag print on a sheet of matte fine art paper, curling at one corner to show its thickness.

Hahnemühle, not poster paper.

  • When you want the best.
  • Unframed, it is Hahnemühle: photographs on Photo Rag 308, 100% cotton.
  • Painterly work on German Etching 310, mould-made and textured.
  • Over 300 gsm, printed as a pigment giclée.
Arrives rolled in a Madtag tube
Framed
The corner of a Madtag print in a black wood frame, the sheet flush against the moulding behind acrylic, no mount board.

For the wall you want finished.

  • Framed and finished; no trip to a framer.
  • A different print: 200 gsm coated silk, made as one piece.
  • Black, white or natural wood moulding.
  • Acrylic glazing, no mount board: the sheet fills the frame.
Arrives flat in its frame
Canvas
A Madtag print on stretched canvas with a solid black wrapped edge.

Nothing lost around the corner.

  • Occupies the room rather than hanging flat.
  • Stretched over a 40 mm deep FSC wood frame.
  • No glazing; the weave itself takes the light.
  • The picture stops at the face; edges solid black, always.
Arrives stretched and ready to hang
See all four in the room