Venus

A meteorite had crashed and landed into a driveway in Gloucestershire town in United Kingdom in February 2021. A latest…

Artist’s depiction of Solar Orbiter.Illustration: ESA/ATG medialabSolar Orbiter has been traveling through space for more than two years, making several close flybys of Venus as it steadily inches closer to the Sun. On September 4, the small spacecraft was in the midst of its most recent gravitational assist when it felt the violent wrath of our host star.The Sun fired off a gigantic coronal mass ejection on August 30, reaching the spacecraft just a few days later. Thankfully, Solar Orbiter is built to withstand these…

In the early hours of Sunday, September 4, Solar Orbiter flew by <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>Venus</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Venus, the second planet from the sun, is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the moon, it is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky. Its rotation (243 Earth days) takes longer than its orbit of the Sun (224.7 Earth days). It is sometimes called…

Although later studies questioned the detection of phosphine, the initial study reignited interest in Venus. In its wake, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) selected three new missions to travel to the planet and investigate, among other questions, whether its conditions could have supported life in the past. China and India, too, have plans to send missions to Venus. “Phosphine reminded everybody how poorly characterized was,” says Colin Wilson at the University of Oxford, one of the deputy lead scientists on…

An illustration of the small spacecraft that Rocket Lab is currently developing to cruise through Venus’ clouds.Illustration: Rocket LabSpaceX might have its sights set on Mars, but Rocket Lab is seeking to become the first private company to reach Venus and explore its clouds for signs of potential habitability. Rocket Lab revealed new details about its self-funded mission to the Venusian clouds in a recent paper published in the journal Aerospace. The California-basedcompany is building a small probe that’s designed to…

All stars dies and our Sun is a star. Therefore, it makes sense that at some point down the line, our Sun, which provides life to Earth, will die, too. When it does, scientists say that the Sun will destroy Earth, Mercury, and Venus, leaving our entire solar system devastated. One day, the Sun may destroy Earth or make it unlivable due to the intense heat and energy it releases. Image source: Tryfonov / AdobeA full pot can only boil so long before it finally boils over, and the Sun is kind of like a pot of…

EnVision aerobraking in Venus atmosphere. Credit: ESA/ Paris Observatory / VR2Planets / Damia BouicEnVision, a project of the European Space Agency (ESA), is a mission to <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>Venus</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Venus, the second planet from the sun, is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the moon, it is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky. Its…

Two spacecraft flew past Venus recently in a rare double flyby that captured unique imagery and data. This data is now being analysed, but scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) have been able to translate some of it into sounds to let people experience how it would feel if a gigantic planet flew next to them. The ESA shared a video, asking people to “enjoy the sights, sounds and ‘feels' of a Venus flyby”. It said the video showed the round-up of first impressions of the data recorded by the spacecraft so far.Enjoy…

This month appears to be rewarding for skywatchers with a full range of binocular and telescopic sights in the offing. All through September, interesting cosmic events will take place and can be seen over the horizon, according to NASA. The space agency said in its monthly update astronomers and space enthusiasts will have to gear up early as Mercury, the smallest planet in the Solar System will appear low in the west briefly, about half an hour after the sunset. Because Mercury is so small, only slightly larger than…

Earth and Venus are similar in size and location but that similarity likely ends there. While Earth has an abundance of water and life, Venus is dry and fiercely inhospitable. Being closer to the Sun makes it much hotter than Earth. Its atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, which makes the gas appear like liquid near the surface. NASA has planned to explore Venus via two missions in the early 2030s. One of them is VERITAS, which would orbit the planet. And the other, DAVINCI — Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble…