NASA has announced its return to Earth’s closest planet Venus. The space agency has selected two new missions for the planet – DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) and VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy).
The prime aims of these missions are to get deeper insights into how Venus turned into a red hot planet, despite having many similar characteristics as Earth. It is going to be a milestone in space exploration, lifting the “Venus curse” after decades of efforts to send spacecraft of the hellish planet, according to Scientific American.
“We’re revving up our planetary science program with intense exploration of a world that NASA hasn’t visited in over 30 years,” NASA’s Thomas Zurbuchen said in an official statement.
Examining Venetian atmosphere
DAVINCI+ mission will have a spacecraft examining the composition of the atmosphere on Venus. A descent sphere will be sent through the extremely thick environment, measuring its chemical components.
Venus’ atmosphere has been on researchers’ radar for years. The new announcement follows the discovery of significant sources of phosphine in the atmosphere in September last year. Phosphine is a colorless and odorless gas that is believed to be a possible sign of life inside Venus’ clouds. The DAVINCI+ probe will also click high-resolution images of “tesserae,” the Venetian equivalent of Earth’s continents, notes NASA.
Recently, astronomers finally determined the length of a day on Venus.
Mapping Venus’ geology
VERITAS, NASA’s second mission to Venus will try to map out the planet’s surface unraveling its geologic history. It will also aim to map infrared emissions happening on the surface to know their composition.
“Using cutting-edge technologies that NASA has developed and refined over many years of missions and technology programs, we’re ushering in a new decade of Venus to understand how an Earth-like planet can become a hothouse,” Zurbuchen added.
“Our goals are profound,” he added. “It is not just understanding the evolution of planets and habitability in our own solar system, but extending beyond these boundaries to exoplanets, an exciting and emerging area of research for NASA.”
