NASA is going back to Venus after more than 30 years. Venus once had an atmosphere similar to ancient Earth. It had lakes of liquid water and possibly even life at some point in its history. But today, it’s a hellish world where the average surface temperature is 460°C or 860°F. NASA’s upcoming DAVANICI+ (DAVINCI plus) mission will attempt to find out what went wrong with Venus. It will comprise a spacecraft and a probe.
The spacecraft will track the cloud movements and study the planet’s heat escaping through its thick atmosphere to map the surface. On the other hand, the probe will descend through the atmosphere to sample its chemistry along with the temperature, pressure, and winds. So DAVINCI+ is expected to change our understanding of Venus and provide crucial insights into how the planet transformed.
#nasa #venus #space #astronomy
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