Venus refers to the second planet from the sun in our solar system. It is often referred to as Earth's sister planet due to its similar size and composition.
Venus is known for its thick atmosphere and extremely high surface temperatures, which make it inhospitable to life as we know it.
There have been numerous missions to Venus by various space agencies, including NASA and the Soviet/Russian Space Agency. Some examples of these missions include:
- The Mariner 2 spacecraft, which flew by Venus in 1962 and became the first successful planetary flyby in history
- The Venera landers, a series of Soviet spacecraft that landed on Venus' surface and transmitted data back to Earth in the 1970s and 1980s
- The Magellan spacecraft, which orbited Venus and mapped its surface using radar in the 1990s
- The European Space Agency's Venus Express mission, which orbited Venus and studied its atmosphere from 2006 to 2014
- NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which will fly by Venus in order to use its gravity to adjust its trajectory and study the sun's corona.
All these missions provided scientists with valuable information about Venus' surface, atmosphere, and potential for hosting life.