Nasa has recently come up with a new announcement. It is sending two of their newer missions to Venus to examine the atmosphere and the geological features of it.
The mission has been awarded $500m in funding. It is going to launch between 2028 and 2030. Nasa’s administrator Bill Nelson on this matter said the mission would offer the chance to investigate a planet.
The last US probe to visit this planet was the Magellan orbiter that took place in 1990. However, others from the spacecraft, from Europe and Japan, have been orbiting the planet since then. This mission selected after following a complete reviewing process. It has been chosen based on its potential scientific value. Also, it is focussing on the feasibility of their development for these plans.
Mr. Nelson said, “These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world, capable of melting lead at the surface.”
Venus is the second planet in orbit from the sun. It is the hottest planet in the solar system, with its surface temperature of 500 degrees celsius. It is high enough to melt lead.
The Davinci+ mission will continue to measure the atmosphere of the plane to gain insight into its history of forming and evolving. It will also focus on its goal of determining whether Venus ever has any ocean in it or not.
The Davinci+ is expecting to return to the first high-resolution images of the tesserae on this planet. Scientists believe that these features are easy to compare to the continents on the earth. It can also suggest if Venus has plate tectonics or not.
It will continue to use a form of radar for charting the surface elevation. Also, it will discover whether the volcanoes and the earthquakes are still happening there or not.
“It is astounding how little we know about Venus, but the combined results of these missions will tell us about the planet from the clouds in the sky through the volcanoes on its surface all the way down to its very core,” said Tom Wagner from Planetary Science Division of Nasa. “It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet,” he added.
Credits: BBC
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