He planet venus It remains an enigma to scientists, despite being similar in size and composition to Earth. Instead, to Mars we have sent multitudes of Rover. We only have a handful of images of the surface of venusand they are almost 50 years old.
Venus is just over 200 million kilometers from Earth, only 19 million kilometers further away than Mars. But still, we have turned our backs on it. Although for good reason.
Curiously, the first terrestrial ship that visited another planet, went to Venus. the probe sailor 2 from NASA came to its vicinity in 1962, and for 42 minutes he was able to scan the planet. But she never landed.
Thereafter a race ensued between NASA and the Soviet Union to see who landed before on Venus.
Venus, the Earth of the future?
After 8 failed missions, the Russians managed to reach the surface with the ship worship 3 in 1965, but did not make it to land. That happened with the Venera 7, in 1970. Then a few more, all Soviet, according to PetaPixel.
only the worship 9 and 10in 1975and the Venera 13 and 14, in 1982managed to send to Earth some photos of the surface of Venus, before being destroyed. You can see them all together in this video. The photos reveal a desolate planet with a yellow atmosphere:
The Venera 13 is the probe that has managed to remain on the surface the longest, a total of 127 minutes.
Why is it so difficult to land and stay on Venus? The reason is simple: the temperature of the surface is around 450 degrees Celsiusand the pressure is 90 times higher to what we have on Earth. Arriving ships literally fall apart from the heat, or are destroyed by the enormous pressure.
Many scientists see on Venus, a future earth defeated by climate change.
In its origin, Venus was a twin planet of Earth. Both are roughly the same size, similar in composition, formed at the same time, and have similar gravity. So, why are they so different?
The key is in the atmosphere… and in the life. Venus has a thinner, denser atmosphere than Earth, made up mostly of carbon dioxide, like here. But there are no plants that process that carbon dioxide to transform it into oxygen, nor oceans to absorb it.
So the CO2 has ascended to the upper layers of the atmosphereand has caused a greenhouse effect, which has heated the surface up to 400 degrees Celsius. The numerous volcanoes that it has also contribute to this.
What has happened to Venus is what will happen to the earth Yeah forests and plants cannot process CO2, and the greenhouse effect increases. With fewer and fewer trees and more pollution, it’s not impossible.
The temperatures will increase, the seas and rivers will dry up due to evaporation, and in a few hundred or thousands of years, all life on earth would be wiped out. That is why it is so important return to venusto study these consequences.
There are already new missions planned for the next few years. The POT will send to Venus the probe DAVINCI in 2029and the European Space Agency the InVision in 2030. But neither of them will land on the planet.
So it seems that it will be a few decades before we see new photos of the surface of Venus.