Why is there more attention paid to Mars than to Venus?
Actually, in the past a lot of attention has been paid to Venus, including the landing of spacecraft on its
surface, flying balloons in the atmosphere, and of course with spacecraft "flying by" and going into orbit
around that world. One of the things that were found out was the amazingly high temperature on the surface.
How high? Well, think about those flows of lava you see on TV, flowing out of a volcano. Using radar to
penetrate the clouds that hide Venus from direct view (and make it so bright as the "morning" or "evening"
star), the planet has been shown to be covered with volcanos and meteor craters. Its atmosphere is 100 times
denser than the Earth's, and the droplets of the clouds are concentrated sulphuric acid, not water!
All of this makes exploration of Venus extremely difficult. It's like putting something in a self-cleaning
oven. Absence of life is an obvious conclusion. On the other hand, it is very interesting to understand why
Venus is the kind of place it now is. Was it always hot? Billions of years ago, it seems the Sun was only 70
percent as bright as it is now. Would Venus have been a "nicer" place then? What does Venus tell us about the
future of Earth (and Mars)?
Mars is obviously on easier place to explore, and importantly a place where life might have existed. Perhaps it
still does in some protected places. Mars is also a placer where life can exist. Humans utilizing technology
now available and expected in the near future, definitely within the lifetimes of today's children, can live
on Mars. These are some of the reasons why attention is now being focused on Mars.
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