Science
Related: About this forumA proposed new mission to Venus (earthsky.org)
Posted by Paul Scott Anderson in Space | July 12, 2020
Venus is often called Earths sister planet, and its also our closest planetary neighbor. Its about the same size and density as Earth. But, beyond that, Venus is a very different and hostile world. While Earth is a garden, Venus is hot enough on its surface to melt lead. Scientists think that Venus used to be more Earthlike a few billion years ago, when the solar system was younger. Something happened that altered its evolutionary course forever, but exactly what that was is still not well understood. Somehow, Venus changed from being a clement world, possibly with oceans, to the cloud-enshrouded, searing hellhole we know today. A proposed new NASA mission, called VERITAS, would study Venus geology, both below and on the surface. It would try to answer fundamental questions about how this world ended up being so very different from our own.
The latest overview of the VERITAS mission was posted by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on July 8, 2020.
VERITAS Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography & Spectroscopy is one of the four proposed missions being considered for NASAs Discovery Program. Suzanne Smrekar, principal investigator of VERITAS at JPL, stated:
Venus is like this cosmic gift of an accident. You have these two planetary bodies Earth and Venus that started out nearly the same but have gone down two completely different evolutionary paths, but we dont know why.
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more: https://earthsky.org/space/veritas-mission-venus-surface-interior-geology
Judi Lynn
(160,662 posts)Last edited Tue Jul 14, 2020, 05:17 AM - Edit history (1)
If this project will be undertaken, it will happen in 2026.
I can't even imagine a volcano 5 miles high! There's so much to think about after reading this article.
Doesn't seem possible Venus and the Earth were once similar.
I'm surprised there hasn't been so much more discussion in ordinary places about this.
Thank you, so much!
Fascinating link attached to the O.P. article:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2020-128
Which provides this interactive map:
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/orrery/#/home