Mount Holyoke professor part of mission to explore Venus gazettenet.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazettenet.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The DAVINCI+ probe falls toward Venus, sampling the atmosphere as it goes, in an artist’s concept. NASA GSFC; CI LABS/MICHAEL LENTZ AND OTHERS
Was Venus once a good home for life? NASA missions aim to find out
Jun. 9, 2021 , 3:35 PM
When NASA announced last week it would spend $1 billion developing two new missions to Venus the agency’s first visits in decades to Earth’s hothouse twin planetary scientists were elated, and not just because a long wait had ended. A dramatic shift in thinking about the planet over the past few years has made a visit even more enticing. Venus was once thought to have boiled off all its water almost as soon as it was born 4.5 billion years ago, turning into the parched, hostile world of today. But many scientists now think Venus might have kept expansive oceans for billions of years a nearly perfect setting for life.
The two space probes will study Venus, a scorching hot world that may have once been like Earth. NASA chose the Venus missions over other candidates, such as trips to the moons of Jupiter and Neptune.
NASA Picks Twin Missions To Visit Venus, Earth s Evil Twin – Nation & World News wuft.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wuft.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.