Explanation:

Japan's Akatsuki is a spacecraft that is orbiting Venus to study the planet's climate and atmosphere. The $300-million spacecraft began its science observations in 2016 and remained operational as of late 2017. During its mission, the spacecraft has made some unexpected observations.

Akatsuki — the name means "dawn" in Japanese — had a rocky start. Its first attempt to go into orbit around Venus in 2010 failed. However, a second try in 2015 was successful and allowed investigators to do some of the science they had originally planned for the planet. However, two infrared cameras were disabled in December 2016 due to unstable power consumption.