On 9 November 2005, 10 years ago today, the Venus Express spacecraft left Earth and began its 153-day journey to Venus. The craft then spent eight years studying the planet in detail before the mission came to an end in December 2014. One of the mission aims was to observe the planet's atmosphere continuously over long periods of time to understand its dynamic behavior. Venus Express has shown that the polar vortices of Venus are among the most variable in the Solar System. This series of images of Venus' south pole was taken with the VIRTIS instrument from February 2007 (top left) to April 2008 (bottom right). The shape of this vortex core, which typically measures 2000-3000 km across, changes dramatically as it is buffeted by turbulent winds. It can resemble an "S", a figure-eight, a spiral, an eye, and more. Each of the images in this frame is roughly 4000 km across.