Venus, Earth's evil twin, characterized by rains of sulfuric acid, air filled with toxic gases and hellish temperatures. But man has always been under its talismanic influence, and eventually the Soviet Union decided to land a probe mission on the surface of seemingly impossible world. Though, the mission failed but scientists didn't give up and managed to collected unique scientific data and images the planet's surface. So how did the Soviet spacecraft survive the heat of this hellish planet for almost an hour? What did Parker solar probe mission and Soviet probe mission manage to capture? And why scientists still surprised at some images of Venus? These and many similar questions may arise in your minds, to which we will try to find the answers.
It was February 9, 2022, when dreams seemed to be real, NASA's Parker Solar Probe took the first real but invisible infrared images of Venus. The probe when flew past the planet, used its wide-field imager to capture whole night side of Venus on camera. NASA compiled a video by combining these images here's what the Parker probe captured? The images show faint glow on the surface of planet, the outlines of its continental regions, plains, mountains plateaus and even an incredible glowing Halo of oxygen in the atmosphere. Scientists assumed the Parker solar probe would only capture the cloud's top that enveloped Venus but it exceeded their expectations and was able to see the surface of planet through the dense veil of its atmosphere. Scientist believed that due to the planet's hellish temperature, its rocky surface glows like a piece of iron, recently pulled out from a forge.
Long before that, the USSR dreamed of landing its probes on Venus, among their many failed attempts Venera 4 and Venera 5 were the USSR's first spacecraft. But still they managed to transmit a lot of valuable information about the planet's atmosphere. They discovered almost three layers of dense clouds that covered Venus. In December 1970, the Venera 7 became the first Soviet probe to soft land on the surface of another planet approximately 38 million miles from earth. Thanks to a powerful cooling system, it lasted about 23 minutes under intense heat and was able to transmit detailed data on temperature, pressure and density of the atmosphere back to Earth with the help of sophisticated measuring instruments. Meanwhile, NASA began launching its probe missions to Venus.
In
1962, the Mariner 2 probe was the first American spacecraft to fly by and study
Venus. The data received overturned all the existing ideas about the Earth's
twin. Study revealed that Venus is a desolate, red-hot land with temperatures
as high as 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Venus' thick atmosphere was found to consist
of corrosive sulfuric acid, carbon dioxide, and an atmospheric pressure nine
times that of Earth, enough to flatten any spacecraft.
In 1974, Mariner 10 probe transmitted the planet's first close-up image. It was edited into colors image, to what Venus would look like as seen by human eyes. It shows dense clouds of carbon dioxide that covered the red-hot world of Venus.
In
October 1975, landing few days apart, the Venera 9 and Venera 10 probes took
their first images directly from the surface of planet. The cameras were placed
inside the protected compartment to prevent them from going out of service
immediately and light from the planet's surface reached the periscope device
through a special porthole, which then directed it toward the cameras. As color
cameras could not withstand the high temperatures and pressure of the Venus so
images appeared in black white and lack detail but for the first time mankind
could see the surface of a world located 38 million miles away from earth at
its nearest. Venera 9 capture image that shows a
terrain covered with numerous rocks with sharp edges and the Venera 10 panorama
showed some strange formations resembling something like frozen lava flows.
In 1981 the Venera 14 spacecraft launched from earth also capture great images. The instruments were placed in a sealed titanium case which helped cooling down considerably before reaching the surface and lasted 57 minutes on the planet. The camera module managed to capture 14 coloured and eight black and white images of the planet's surface. A stunning coloured panoramic view became particularly famous. It took image of rock formations surrounded by dark shallow soil. Many incomprehensible objects can also be seen in this desolate landscape. An article was published by a team of scientists from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences suggesting there are signs of civilization on Venus. Some of the details in the footage resemble a disc a black cloth and a scorpion. These objects suddenly appear in the frame, move and then disappear but the sensation didn't last long. Soon it turned out that the footages included parts of the probe that had fallen off after hard landing. These were the last images of Venus taken by the Soviet probes but the photo shoots of the planet were just beginning.
The U.S launched the Magellan spacecraft in 1989 which transmitted many vivid images of Venus to NASA. These images showed the planet's ancient volcanoes, unique meteorite impact craters and incredibly high mountains. The tallest of these 'Maxwell Montes' is 11 kilometers high, compared to Mount Everest which is just 8.8 kilometers high.
The dark carter is right and above the center, is called Cleopatra and the black stripes in the image are unmapped places.
Among
the areas of Venus shown by the Magellan there's something fascinating located
in the Estella region of Venus. This is an edifice of volcano 66 kilometers
across the base. There are also some incomprehensible lines across the terrain.
These are tesserae tectonically complex units that covers about eight percent
of the surface of Venus. Commonly occur as the high standing crustal plateaus
that are covered by the lava flows from the adjacent plains of volcanoes. So
far such patterns have only been found on the Venus surface.
.JPG)
A
large circular structure of the giant Aine Corona near the center of the image
with the diameter of about 300 kilometers is another area unique area of Venus.
It is actually a volcanic formation of about 200 kilometers in diameter.
Coronas are unique ring-shaped structures on Venus, formed by piles of
superheated rock flowing from the planet's deep mantle through the crust. A
short distance from Corona is another unique structure, about 35 km in
diameter, known as Pancake Dome. Usually, these pancake domes are approximately
ten kilometers in diameter, about one-kilometer-high, and remarkably circular
in shape. According to scientists these were formed in ancient times by the
eruption of a highly viscous lava.
The
planet was initially thought to be devoid of internal energy, but later
developments disproved this assumption, as tectonic activity still continues
deep inside Venus and volcanoes can still spew lava on its surface. Although
it's not an actual direct image, this is the volcano Matt mons. Because due to
thick layer of clouds the Magellan spacecraft couldn't see the surface of
Venus, so the image transmitted to us, was taken by its on board radar while
surveying the planet. Matt mons is the highest volcano on Venus, eight
kilometers high, and scientists suspect that it may have erupted recently. It
has a large crater at its center and a network of many small craters spread
around the area.
The
images are incredible, but then what were the speculations about the possible
presence of microbial life in the clouds of Venus? This is why astronomers
believe that the clouds of Venus may be home to microbes because the
temperature in the upper clouds of Venus reaches up to 30 degrees Celsius as
compared to the incredibly high temperatures on the surface of the planet.
Although these clouds are also consisting of about 90% sulfuric acid but
scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are now exploring
potentially super microbes in the Venusian clouds.
On
the other hand, NASA is planning to launch two more probes, the Da Vinci and
Veritas missions, which will try to obtain more accurate and comprehensive
information about Venus. The European Space Agency is trying to send its
Envision Orbiter to the planet, and the Russians are also developing a project
called Venera D Roscosmos, which aims to send an orbiter and a lander to Venus
Russians are very hopeful that the lander will easily withstand the harsh
environment of the planet for about a month. These orbiters and lander are
expected to send many images back to Earth.
Which future space missions are you looking forward to and what gets you the most excited about the cosmos. Let us know in the comments to make sure you don't miss out new discoveries happening every day, make sure to stay connected here by following our page and thanks for reading this article.
Image sources: NASA official site and Details are on page: https://pastebin.com/raw/Bw3hYV6G
For view the article on YouTube Subscribe our Channel @learnhome1226