What are Some Major Landmarks on Venus?
The planet Venus, blanketed by a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen containing reflective, high-altitude clouds of sulfuric acid, has been extremely mysterious to astronomers until very recently in history. Prior to investigation of Venus by cloud-penetrating radar in 1961, astronomers knew absolutely nothing about its surface. Some writers speculated that a warm tropical world lie beneath its clouds. They were right about the warm part. Microwave and infrared radiometers mounted on Mariner 2, a space probe which made a fly-by of Venus in 1962, revealed that the surface was incredibly hot — 425 °C (797 °F), hot enough to melt lead. This crushed all speculation of life on the surface. On the plus side, the cloud-tops of Venus were found to be relatively cool, comparable to temperatures on Earth. The pressure at the surface was found to be about 92 times greater than at sea level on Earth, similar to the pressure 1 km (0.62 mi) under the ocean. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s
The planet Venus, blanketed by a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen containing reflective, high-altitude clouds of sulfuric acid, has been extremely mysterious to astronomers until very recently in history. Prior to investigation of Venus by cloud-penetrating radar in 1961, astronomers knew absolutely nothing about its surface. Some writers speculated that a warm tropical world lie beneath its clouds. They were right about the warm part. Microwave and infrared radiometers mounted on Mariner 2, a space probe which made a fly-by of Venus in 1962, revealed that the surface was incredibly hot — 425 °C (797 °F), hot enough to melt lead. This crushed all speculation of life on the surface. On the plus side, the cloud-tops of Venus were found to be relatively cool, comparable to temperatures on Earth. The pressure at the surface was found to be about 92 times greater than at sea level on Earth, similar to the pressure 1 km (0.62 mi) under the ocean. Throughout the 1970s and 198
