Although Venus is the closest planet to Earth, astronomers have rarely explored it in recent years due to its extremely harsh environment.
From the 1970s to the 1980s, a series of Soviet probes specifically designed for Venus were among the few instruments sent to study the planet. Although some of these probes were lost, others successfully landed on the surface and sent back images to Earth. Through these real photographs of Venus, astronomers discovered that Venus is much harsher than we previously thought.
The English name for Venus is Venus, which is also the name of the goddess of love and beauty in ancient Roman mythology. However, if you observe and study this planet, you will see that it is not beautiful and romantic as its name suggests. (Image: Scienceabc).
Judging from the yellow and black photographs, Venus also has a rocky surface similar to Earth but looks somewhat smooth and cracked. This is due to the atmospheric pressure on Venus being 90 times that of Earth. Because of this immense pressure, the terrain on Venus is mostly flat and lacks the high variations seen on Earth.
Aside from land, the majority of the gases in Venus’s atmosphere are carbon dioxide, and the most significant characteristic of this gas is its ability to trap heat. When it absorbs heat from sunlight, it does not dissipate, and volcanic eruptions and internal heat from the surface of Venus release a massive amount of heat that is also “trapped” by carbon dioxide, causing temperatures on Venus to exceed 400 degrees Celsius. Under these high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, the Soviet probes could only function for a few hours before losing contact and being completely destroyed.
This is a planet with an extremely extreme climate, hot enough to be compared to hell. Therefore, if you are looking for a “hellish” planet in the Solar System, Venus is certainly it. (Image: Forbes).
On Earth, we can often see Venus before sunrise and after sunset. It is the brightest star in the night sky. The reason it shines brighter than Jupiter is due to its thick atmosphere, which has a reflectivity of up to 60%. All sunlight that reaches Venus is reflected back into space by its atmosphere. Moreover, since Venus is the closest planet to Earth, it becomes the brightest star in the night sky.
Since the 1960s, humans have launched over 40 spacecraft to Venus, of which 11 missions were unsuccessful, 7 spacecraft failed to approach, and only 9 probes successfully got close to this planet. This is also the reason we know very little about the surface of Venus. (Image: Power-technology).
Despite the extremely harsh environmental conditions, some astronomers still believe that there may be life on this planet, specifically that microorganisms might exist in the atmosphere of Venus, living and reproducing in the atmosphere to avoid the high temperature and pressure on the surface.
The reason for this is that astronomers speculate that they have detected gases emitted from biological activities in Venus’s atmosphere. If these gases are confirmed to be unnatural in the future, life on Venus could essentially be confirmed.
In the dense atmosphere of Venus, carbon dioxide makes up 96.5%, with the remaining 3.5% consisting of nitrogen and trace gases such as sulfur dioxide, water vapor, and droplets of sulfuric acid. Because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, such a dense atmosphere results in extremely high temperatures on the surface of Venus. The average surface temperature of this planet reaches 462 degrees Celsius, enough to melt lead, much hotter than our typical furnace temperatures. Even at the northern and southern poles of the planet, temperatures remain above 450 degrees Celsius day and night. (Image: Zhihu).
In fact, like Mars, Venus was once a habitable planet with oceans and an atmosphere in the early Solar System… During the early days of the Solar System, the brightness of the young Sun was not as intense as it is today, allowing the habitable zone of planets in the Solar System to extend further out than it does now. For at least the first 500 million years after the Solar System’s formation, Venus was a planet within the habitable zone, while Earth was still a primordial planet, and the temperature of the entire planet had not yet cooled down completely, making it unsuitable for life to develop.
When Venus orbiters were operational in the 20th century, it was speculated that mountain-like structures on Venus were remnants of cities from an alien civilization, due to the low resolution of the images at that time. However, this has now been confirmed to be inaccurate.
In fact, billions of years ago, Venus was not like it is today. It once had vast oceans, and its environment was even more suitable for the development of life than Earth at that time. (Image: Allthatsinteresting).
Venus has a mass and volume very similar to Earth, and while its environment does not allow for exploration on a large scale like Mars, in the future, with breakthroughs in material technology and the advent of an era of navigation in the Solar System, Venus and Mercury, the inner planets of the Solar System, will certainly also be reached by human civilization.
