Images of Venus From Venera Mission Look Forbidding

Venus is often compared to our planet, earning it the moniker "Earth's twin." However, the only photos captured on the second planet looked like an abandoned Earth.

Venus Photos From Venera

It's difficult to imagine a lander that might endure the extremely hostile conditions on Venus. However, Venera was able to send photos from the Venusian surface. The Soviet space program launched sixteen probes to Earth's sunside neighbor between 1961 and 1984.

Venera is the only software to transmit sounds and photos from Venus' surface. Venera 9, 10, 13, and 14 captured panoramic images of their landing sites, while Venera 13 and 14 recorded audio.

Though the data may seem a little shaky by today's standards, it was collected decades ago, and the probes had to work under extremely demanding conditions. The initial photos, obtained in Venera 9 and 10, were taken in 1975 and Venera 13 in 1982.

With more advanced image processing methods and technologies, people have just looked again at the data, which is almost 50 years old. The results are some quite intriguing images of Venus. They depict an alien world with a golden tint that somehow seems intimidating, even without indicating the poison, pressure, or temperature that would wipe out life as we know it.

In this photo, the surface is tinted with golden color due to the sunlight penetrating through Venus's clouds. The planet's surface is covered with dark grayish rocks and soil, according to image processing done by Brown University.

This is assumed to be due to the way the surface formed. Most of Venus's surface is made up of volcanic features. There's a chance that volcanic activity continues to this day.

With the launch of Venera 3 in 1966, Venera Mission became the first program to penetrate the atmosphere of a different planet successfully. Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to land gently on another planet in 1970.

Furthermore, Venera was the first mission to transmit images and sounds from another planet to Earth, even though none of the eight Venera probes that touched down on Venus survived longer than two hours. Venera 12 lasted 110 minutes until it was destroyed by heat and pressure.

Even though technology has advanced since Venera's time, we haven't yet sent another probe to Venus. Future missions from many international space agencies aim to investigate the planet's atmosphere.

Venus May Have Earth-Like Tectonic Plates Long Time Ago

A recent study suggests that Venus's plate tectonics may have been comparable to Earth's in the past. The finding increases the possibility that life has ever existed on the planet known as the scorching world, which is located two planets away from the Sun.

Lead author Matt Weller, a scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, stated that it is likely that two planets were concurrently functioning under a plate tectonic regime similar to the one that our planet currently enjoys and is home to life.

Venus developed differently from Earth despite being called "Earth's twin" and being the planet closest to it. Surface temperatures can reach as high as 867 degrees Fahrenheit (464 degrees Celsius).

One theory for Venus's unique evolution is that its surface was once composed of a single plate, a "stagnant lid." Venus's atmosphere was probably shielded from internal movement, and gas escaped by the solid plate.

Weller, a scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, and his colleagues, however, think that this was not always the case and that the planet-which is similar to Earth in size, mass, volume, and density-may have undergone shifting plate tectonics between 3.5 and 4.5 billion years ago. If true, that would also account for the high carbon dioxide and nitrogen concentrations now in its atmosphere.

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.