107.8 million km from the sun. Venus, a yellow planet 227 million km from Earth. It was 30 years ago that NASA’s spacecraft first landed on Venus. Venus, called Earth’s twin brother, is a rocky planet that receives a lot of sunlight and heat like Earth. However, in the process of evolution, the fates of both sides have changed greatly.
In 2021, NASA and the European Space Agency announced that they would launch three new probes toward Venus around 2030. If this mission succeeds, data and knowledge about the hot and toxic planets will increase significantly. Unravel the 7 secrets of Venus.
first. Venus’ rotation is opposite to Earth’s. Most of the planets in the solar system rotate counterclockwise when viewed from above the North Pole. But Venus and Uranus are clockwise. Why Venus is spinning in the reverse direction is unknown. At first, it was the same as another star, but there are theories that the star itself was overturned somewhere, and there are theories that the direction of rotation was reversed in the middle. There is also a theory that something huge collided with it and forced it to reverse. In addition, one Venus day equals 250 Earth days. A Venusian year is 225 Earth days.
Second, Venus is a glowing planet. The biggest feature of Venus is its harsh heat. The details of this are also unclear. However, Venus has an average temperature of 454 degrees Celsius, which is hotter than Mercury, which orbits closer to the sun.
Why did it become such a harsh environment? There is a theory that the atmosphere containing a lot of carbon dioxide trapped heat and the greenhouse effect ran rampant, burning the star. The surface temperature is high enough to melt lead, enough to destroy a space probe in a matter of hours. Therefore, knowing the atmospheric chemistry by NASA’s DaVinci+ probe in the near future is expected to explain why Venus is such a fiery hell.
Third, Venus is full of volcanoes. Venus has many huge volcanoes, but it is unknown whether they are still active or all dormant. In 2020, the research team reported 37 active volcanic structures, and it is possible that lava is still erupting from within the planet.
In March 2023, researchers analyzing radar images taken by the Magellan probe 30 years ago found evidence of possible volcanic activity. Venusian volcanoes vary in structure from towering volcanoes to flat pancake-dome volcanoes. You can see not only the volcano itself, but also the vast grooves formed by the dried up lava. The VERITAS mission, which will orbit Venus in 2030, may provide more detailed information about Venus’ volcanic activity.
Fourth, even if the atmosphere of Venus is thick, there can be great climatological confusion. Venus’ atmosphere is not only rich in carbon dioxide, but also covered by clouds of sulfuric acid. It is impossible for humans to go and see the scenery with their own eyes. Because the overall atmosphere is thick, radar is the only way to know what the surface looks like. The atmospheric pressure is 95 times that of Earth’s, equivalent to being on the ocean floor at a depth of 1,000 m.
Fifth, Venus may have had an ocean. Another big difference between Earth and Venus is that there is no water on Venus. NASA climate models suggest that Venus may have once had vast watery oceans. In an academic journal in 2019, it was also reported that the possibility that there was water within a more advanced model had faded somewhat, but the possibility is not zero. It is usually assumed that the sea evaporated when the extreme greenhouse effect took hold.
However, just one month after the new NASA model was announced, another team analyzed the Venusian basalt and discovered that what NASA scientists once assumed was a lake was actually a lava lake. After 2030, the Russian space agency Roscosmos and the European Space Agency will investigate the water content of Venus.
The sixth is the tectonic geology of Venus. Venus tectonic geology is essential for understanding Venus evolution and growth. However, the tectonic geology is bizarre, for example, a unique mosaic topography, where mountain ridges and valleys are successively shaped like some crumpled stars.
Mosaic features on Venus are old, but other areas aren’t as old, so it remains a mystery how they formed, if not from volcanic activity. Also, the question of whether Venus rocks are motionless or completely still remains unexplained.
The seventh is that Venus has clouds where life can live. Although the atmosphere of Venus is said to be harmful, there is a possibility that life could exist here. In 2020, phosphine, a compound of phosphorus and hydrogen, was detected from the atmosphere of Venus and became a hot topic. This gas is known as a gas produced by some kind of organism and is called a bio signature. The truth won’t be known until Da Vinci+ goes to Venus and detects chemicals in the atmosphere.
