WITH scorching rocks, downpours of sulphuric acid, and a crushing atmosphere with a pressure 90 times Earth’s, Venus has to be the most hellish planet in the solar system. Yet in one respect it turns out to be surprisingly Earth-like.
A year’s worth of results from the seven experiments aboard the European Space Agency’s Venus Express mission, released this week, have helped to create the most detailed 3D model of Venus’s atmosphere to date – and it paints a surprisingly familiar picture (Nature, vol 450, p 629). “In many respects, Venus is actually pretty much like Earth,” says project scientist…
