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Venus
Topic Started: Dec 20 2009, 09:47 AM (624 Views)
Michelle
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Posted Image

Beneath Venus' Clouds
If the thick clouds covering Venus were removed, how would the surface appear? Using an imaging radar technique, the Magellan spacecraft was able to lift the veil from the Face of Venus and produce this spectacular high resolution image of the planet's surface. Red, in this false-color map, represents mountains, while blue represents valleys. This 3-kilometer resolution map is a composite of Magellan images compiled between 1990 and 1994. Gaps were filled in by the Earth-based Arecibo Radio Telescope. The large yellow/red area in the north is Ishtar Terra featuring Maxwell Montes, the largest mountain on Venus. The large highland regions are analogous to continents on Earth. Scientists are particularly interested in exploring the geology of Venus because of its similarity to Earth.

Image from NASA website, and converted to PNG format
Credit: Magellan Team, JPL, NASA.
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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

Wow...that false-colour map almost looks like a terraformed Venus! Not that there would be much point in terraforming it; the water would just boil away :P .
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thecostumedanceparty
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KingsIndian
Dec 25 2009, 05:51 PM
Wow...that false-colour map almost looks like a terraformed Venus! Not that there would be much point in terraforming it; the water would just boil away :P .
Not exactly. I did a project on Venus. I believe if it were terraformed, the sulfuric acid clouds would disperse and Venus would become very much like Earth. The only problem is that it is closer to the sun, so it would still be hot. But I don't think it would be hot enough to prevent water (I could be wrong).
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Michelle
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thecostumedanceparty
Dec 25 2009, 08:12 PM
KingsIndian
Dec 25 2009, 05:51 PM
Wow...that false-colour map almost looks like a terraformed Venus! Not that there would be much point in terraforming it; the water would just boil away :P .
Not exactly. I did a project on Venus. I believe if it were terraformed, the sulfuric acid clouds would disperse and Venus would become very much like Earth. The only problem is that it is closer to the sun, so it would still be hot. But I don't think it would be hot enough to prevent water (I could be wrong).
That's not surprising.
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CJ
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Ah, OK. There must be some way of working out how hot, but I think it'd be too hot for life in any case. In about a billion years, the sun will be hot enough to make life on Earth impossible! However, life on Mars would probably then be possible.
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Michelle
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Yeah... makes me wonder if there was life on there once,
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thecostumedanceparty
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I believe bacteria was found on Mars. Not sure about Venus though.
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Michelle
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Probably not. Way too hot if there were any Venusians!
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thecostumedanceparty
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Dakota
Dec 14 2010, 04:12 PM
Probably not. Way too hot if there were any Venusians!
Yeah, I would say so. But do you ever think Venus may not have been so hot millions of years ago when the sun was smaller?
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Michelle
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That's not why it's hot. It's hot because it has clouds in its atmosphere which act like the greenhouse effect.
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thecostumedanceparty
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Dakota
Dec 14 2010, 04:24 PM
That's not why it's hot. It's hot because it has clouds in its atmosphere which act like the greenhouse effect.
I know. But isn't much of that caused by the sun?
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CJ
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Some of it might be, but it won't be the only thing that's causing it: if it were, we should be seeing the same thing on Mercury, but in fact, Venus is hotter than Mercury.

As for bacteria on Mars, I believe that rocks with patterns in them that looked like fossilized bacteria were found, although it's controversial as to whether they actually are fossilized bacteria.
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Michelle
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Yep, Venus is hotter, strange huh?
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thecostumedanceparty
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KingsIndian
Dec 14 2010, 04:39 PM
Some of it might be, but it won't be the only thing that's causing it: if it were, we should be seeing the same thing on Mercury, but in fact, Venus is hotter than Mercury.

As for bacteria on Mars, I believe that rocks with patterns in them that looked like fossilized bacteria were found, although it's controversial as to whether they actually are fossilized bacteria.
In Venus's defense, I have to say Mercury is an unusual planet. I'd even consider it less planet than the other 8. There's no ther planet that is hot on one side and freezing on other, except Mercury. Don't moons do this as well?
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CJ
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I suppose it depends on the moon's period of rotation. The reason why Mercury's like that is because it rotates so slowly (so the part facing the Sun faces it for a long time, getting hotter and hotter, and the part facing away just gets colder and colder. Venus has an even slower rotation period, but presumably, the sulphuric acid clouds stop heat from escaping into space.
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thecostumedanceparty
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KingsIndian
Dec 15 2010, 03:51 PM
I suppose it depends on the moon's period of rotation. The reason why Mercury's like that is because it rotates so slowly (so the part facing the Sun faces it for a long time, getting hotter and hotter, and the part facing away just gets colder and colder. Venus has an even slower rotation period, but presumably, the sulphuric acid clouds stop heat from escaping into space.
Venus also shifts the opposite direction than all the other planets if I recall correctly (Pluto is the same way).
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Michelle
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I believe it does do that.
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CJ
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costumedanceparty
Dec 15 2010, 04:00 PM
KingsIndian
Dec 15 2010, 03:51 PM
I suppose it depends on the moon's period of rotation. The reason why Mercury's like that is because it rotates so slowly (so the part facing the Sun faces it for a long time, getting hotter and hotter, and the part facing away just gets colder and colder. Venus has an even slower rotation period, but presumably, the sulphuric acid clouds stop heat from escaping into space.
Venus also shifts the opposite direction than all the other planets if I recall correctly (Pluto is the same way).
Yes, that's correct. Presumably, at some point in its life, Venus has received a massive whack from an asteroid, which knocked it into spinning the opposite way.
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Michelle
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Wow, kinda like what happened to Uranus, I think. Well sorta.
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CJ
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Yeah, that would have been knocked onto its side by a whack from an asteroid too.
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Michelle
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Oh, that's what I thought. So the two have something in common!
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Michelle
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A beautiful picture with Venus...
Posted Image
Edited by Michelle, Dec 30 2012, 07:42 PM.
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CJ
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Well, I knew Venus was very bright in the sky, but I didn't know it appeared as big as that....
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Michelle
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A cool graphic of Venus
Posted Image
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CJ
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Reminds me of the Squirrel games or something :P .
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Michelle
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Um what?

Posted Image
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CJ
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I like that orange colour. It looks very fire-y.
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Michelle
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Indeed. Very volatile planet... it's a shame probes don't last very long.
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CJ
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I know :( . Venus isn't exactly a hospitable environment for them.

This ultraviolet image of the planet looks very unusual:
http://i.space.com/images/i/000/005/987/original/071128-venus-false-02.jpg?1294166513
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