The universe is huge. Scientists trying to embrace it in their research often feel the incomparable loneliness of humanity permeating some of Efremov’s novels. There is too little chance of finding life like ours in the accessible space of space.
For a long time, among the contenders for the occupation of organic life, Venus was listed , the planet of the solar system, shrouded in legends no less than fog.
Close and similar
Venus, in terms of its distance from the sun, immediately follows Mercury and is our closest neighbor. From the Earth it can be seen without the help of a telescope: in the evening and predawn hours, it is Venus that is the brightest in the sky after the Moon and the Sun. The color of the planet for a simple observer is always white.
In literature, one can find its designation as the twin of the Earth. There are a number of explanations for this: the description of the planet Venus repeats data on our home in many ways. First of all, they include the diameter (about 12,100 km), which practically coincides with the corresponding characteristic of the Blue Planet (a difference of about 5%). The mass of the object, named after the goddess of love, also differs little from the earth. Close proximity also played a role in partial identification.
The discovery of the atmosphere reinforced the view of the similarity of the two cosmic bodies. Information about the planet Venus, confirming the presence of a special air shell, was obtained by M.V. Lomonosov in 1761. A brilliant scientist observed the passage of the planet along the disk of the Sun and noticed a special radiance. The phenomenon was explained by the refraction of light rays in the atmosphere. However, subsequent discoveries revealed a huge gap between seemingly similar conditions on two planets.
Veil of Mystery
Evidence of similarities, such as the size of the planet Venus and the presence of its atmosphere, was supplemented by data on the composition of the air, which virtually crossed out dreams of the existence of life on the Morning Star. In the process of space research , carbon dioxide and nitrogen were discovered. Their share in the air shell is distributed respectively as 96 and 3%.
The density of the atmosphere is a factor that makes Venus so clearly visible from the Earth and at the same time inaccessible to research. The layers of clouds enveloping the planet reflect light well, but are impervious to scientists who want to establish what they are hiding. More detailed information about the planet Venus became available only after the start of space exploration.
The composition of the cloud cover is incomprehensible to the end. Presumably, sulfuric acid fumes play a large role in it. The concentration of gases and the density of the atmosphere, about a hundred times higher than the earth, creates a greenhouse effect on the surface.
Eternal heat
The weather on the planet Venus is in many ways similar to the fantastic descriptions of conditions in the underworld. Due to the peculiarities of the atmosphere, the surface never cools down even from that part which is turned away from the Sun. And this despite the fact that the Morning Star makes a revolution around the axis in more than 243 Earth days! The temperature on the planet Venus is + 470ÂşC.
The absence of a change in the seasons is due to the inclination of the axis of the planet, according to various sources, not exceeding 40 or 10Âş. Moreover, the thermometer column here gives the same results for both the equatorial zone and the pole region.
the greenhouse effect
Such conditions leave no chance for water. According to researchers, once there were oceans on Venus, but an increase in temperature made their existence impossible. Ironically, the formation of the greenhouse effect became possible precisely due to the evaporation of a large amount of water. Steam transmits sunlight, but retains heat near the surface, thereby increasing temperature.
Surface
The heat contributed to the formation of the landscape. Before the advent of radar techniques in the arsenal of astronomy, scientists concealed the nature of the surface that the planet Venus possesses. Photos and images taken by spacecraft helped to draw up a fairly detailed relief map.
High temperature thinned the crust of the planet, so there are a large number of volcanoes, both active and extinct. They give Venus that hilly appearance that is clearly visible on radar images. The basaltic lava flows formed vast plains, against which high elevations, spread over several tens of square kilometers, are clearly visible. These are the so-called continents, comparable in size to Australia, and reminiscent of the mountains of Tibet by the nature of the terrain. Their surface is dotted with cracks and craters, in contrast to the landscape of part of the plains, almost absolutely smooth.
There are far fewer craters left by meteorites than, for example, on the Moon. Scientists name two possible reasons for this: a dense atmosphere, playing the role of a kind of screen, and active processes that erased traces from falling cosmic bodies. In the first case, the discovered craters most likely appeared during the period when the atmosphere was more discharged.
Desert
The description of the planet Venus will be incomplete if you pay attention only to radar data. They give an idea of ​​the nature of the relief, but it is difficult for the average person to understand on their basis what he would see if he got here. Research on spacecraft landing on the Morning Star helped answer the question of what color the planet Venus will be for an observer on its surface. As befits a hellish landscape, shades of orange and gray dominate here. The landscape really resembles a desert, waterless and overwhelming with heat. That is Venus. The color of the planet, characteristic of the soil, dominates in the sky. The reason for such an unusual color is the absorption of the short-wavelength part of the light spectrum, characteristic of a dense atmosphere.
Learning difficulties
Data on Venus is collected by devices with great difficulty. Staying on the planet is complicated by strong winds reaching a peak speed at an altitude of 50 km above the surface. Near the ground, the element is largely calmed down, but even the weak movement of air is a significant obstacle in the dense atmosphere that the planet Venus possesses. Photos that give an idea of ​​the surface are taken by ships capable of resisting a hostile onslaught for only a few hours. However, they are enough for scientists to discover something new after each expedition.
Hurricane winds are not the only feature that the weather on the planet Venus is famous for. Thunderstorms rage here with a frequency that is twice as high as the similar parameter for the Earth. During a period of increasing activity, lightnings cause a specific glow of the atmosphere.
The "Eccentricities" of the Morning Star
The Venusian wind is the reason that clouds move around the planet much faster than it itself around the axis. As noted, the last parameter is 243 days. The atmosphere sweeps around the planet in four days. This Venusian quirks do not end there.
The length of the year here is slightly less than the length of the day: 225 Earth days. In this case, the sun on the planet does not rise in the east, but in the west. Such an unconventional direction of rotation is characteristic only of Uranus. It was the exceeding Earth speed of rotation around the Sun that made it possible to observe Venus twice a day: in the morning and in the evening.
The planet’s orbit is an almost perfect circle, the same can be said about its shape. The earth is slightly flattened from the poles, the Morning Star does not have such a feature.
Coloring
What color is the planet Venus? Partially this topic has already been revealed, but not everything is so simple. This characteristic can also be attributed to the number of features that Venus possesses. The color of the planet, when viewed from space, differs from the dusty orange inherent in the surface. Again, the whole thing is in the atmosphere: the veil of clouds does not pass below the rays of the blue-green spectrum and at the same time colors the planet for an outside observer in a dirty white. For earthlings, rising above the horizon, the Morning Star has a cold brilliance, not a reddish glow.
Structure
Numerous missions of spacecraft allowed us to draw not only conclusions about the color of the surface, but also to study in more detail what is under it. The structure of the planet is similar to the earth. The morning star has a crust (about 16 km thick), the mantle beneath it and the core is the core. The size of the planet Venus is close to the earth, but the ratio of the inner shells of it is different. The thickness of the mantle layer is more than three thousand kilometers, its basis is various silicon compounds. The mantle surrounds a relatively small core, liquid and predominantly iron. Significantly inferior to the earthly "heart", it makes a significant contribution to the mass of Venus: it is about a quarter of it.
The features of the planet's core deprive it of its own magnetic field. As a result, Venus is exposed to the solar wind and is not protected from the so-called anomalies of the hot stream, explosions of colossal magnitude, occurring frighteningly often and capable, according to researchers, to absorb the Morning Star.
Earth exploration
All the characteristics that Venus possesses: the color of the planet, the greenhouse effect, the movement of magma, and so on, are studied, including with the aim of applying the data to our planet. It is believed that the surface structure of the second planet from the Sun may give an idea of ​​how the young Earth looked about 4 billion years ago.
Data on atmospheric gases tells researchers about the time when Venus was just forming. They are also used in constructing theories about the development of the Blue Planet.
For some scientists, the sizzling heat and lack of water on Venus seems to be a possible future for the Earth.
Artificial nurturing of life
With the forecasts that promise the death of the Earth, projects related to the settlement of other planets with organic life are also associated. One of the candidates is Venus. The ambitious plan is to spread blue-green algae in the atmosphere and on the surface, which are the central link in the theory of the origin of life on our planet. The delivered microorganisms in theory can significantly reduce the level of carbon dioxide concentration and lead to a decrease in pressure on the planet, after which further settlement of the planet will become possible. The only insurmountable obstacle to the implementation of the plan is the lack of water necessary for the prosperity of algae.
Certain hopes in this matter are assigned to some types of mold, but so far all developments remain at the level of theory, since sooner or later they encounter significant difficulties.
Venus - the planet of the solar system is truly mysterious. The studies performed answered a lot of questions related to it, and at the same time gave rise to new, somewhat even more complex ones. The morning star is one of the few cosmic bodies bearing a woman’s name, and, like a beautiful girl, she attracts her eyes, takes the thoughts of scientists, and therefore it is likely that researchers will tell us a lot of interesting things about our neighbor.