Exploring Venus

Billions of years ago, Venus may have harbored life-giving habitats similar to those on the early Earth. Today, Earth's twin is a planet knocked upside down and turned inside out. Its burned-out surface is a global fossil of volcanic destruction, shrouded in a dense, toxic atmosphere. Scientists are now unveiling daring new strategies to search for clues from a time when the planet was alive.

Four billion years ago Venus Earth and Mars each held the promise of supporting life with oceans supportive climates and the chemical ingredients of biology Over the eons since Mars lost its atmosphere turning ever colder while Venus entered a deathspiral of everincreasing heat But 50 km above its desolate surface the cool cloud tops of Venus offer a potential refuge This zone is protected from

For more than 100 years astronomers have seen them dark patches swirling in the clouds of Venus visible only in ultraviolet light Could there be lifeforms thriving in the balmy zone 50km above the hellish surface On Earth researchers find life everywhere they look including acidloving bacteria that could easily live in Venus air Experts share what they know – and how theyre going about finding

At Venus surface the temperature is twice as high as in a pizza oven The atmospheric pressure would make you feel like being 1 kilometer deep in Earths oceans Yet visionary engineers are pushing the boundaries of materials science to build probes that can deliver data from the depths of this crushing inferno Experts describe their battle strategies and technologies 

Venus is virtually a twin of Earth in size mass and bulk composition much more like our planet than is Mars Yet it has gone down a completely different – and deadly – evolutionary path Experts share valuable lessons from Venus on the origins of life acid rain ozone loss global warming and other questions They make the passionate case for further exploring Earths evil twin sister