NASA, Europe Launch 3 Venus Missions to Probe How 465C World Turned Hostile
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 4
NASA, Europe Launch 3 Venus Missions to Probe How 465C World Turned Hostile
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 4
Summary
Three missions — NASA’s DAVINCI and VERITAS plus Europe’s EnVision — are set to revisit Venus after decades of relative neglect, targeting the planet’s atmosphere and radar-hidden surface.
DAVINCI will send a probe through the atmosphere in the early 2030s while VERITAS and EnVision map the surface, aiming to test whether Venus once had water and what triggered its runaway greenhouse collapse.
465C surface heat, 92-times-Earth pressure and a carbon-dioxide atmosphere shrouded in sulphuric-acid clouds make Venus the solar system’s most hostile surface; Soviet Venera landers survived barely two hours there.
The missions also revisit disputed clues from Venus’s cloud layer about 50 km up, where temperatures and pressure are comparatively Earth-like and past phosphine claims briefly raised — but did not confirm — the prospect of life.
The broader goal is to explain how Earth’s near-twin lost habitability, sharpening scientists’ understanding of climate tipping points on nearby worlds and potentially Earth-like planets around other stars.