Venus (planet)
Venus is the second planet in the solar system in order of proximity to the Sun and the third in ascending order of size after Mercury and Mars. Like Mercury, it lacks natural satellites. It is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love (in Ancient Greece, Aphrodite). Being the second brightest natural object after the Moon, it can be seen in a clear night sky with the naked eye. It is a rocky and terrestrial inner planet, often called Earth's sister planet, since both are similar in size, mass and composition, although totally different in thermal and atmospheric matters (the average temperature of Venus is 463.85 °C). Its orbit is an ellipse with an eccentricity of less than 1%, making it the most circular orbit of all the planets; it barely exceeds that of Neptune. Its atmospheric pressure is 90 times higher than terrestrial; it is, therefore, the highest atmospheric pressure of all the rocky planets in the solar system. It is white/yellowish in color due to its atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and nitrogen (N2).
Despite being farther from the Sun than Mercury, Venus has the hottest atmosphere in the solar system; this is because it is mainly made up of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, trapping much more heat from the Sun. It currently lacks liquid water and its surface conditions are considered incompatible with known life, although recent discoveries suggest has found phosphine on its nebular surface, a molecule that on Earth is generated by microbes, suggesting the possible existence of life. However, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and others have postulated that in the In the past, Venus could have had oceans with as much water as the Earth's and meet planetary habitability conditions.
This planet also has the longest day in the solar system —243 Earth days—, its movement is right-handed, that is, it rotates clockwise, contrary to the movement of the other planets. Therefore, on a Venusian day the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Its clouds, however, can go around the planet in four Earth days. In fact, prior to studying it with unmanned spacecraft on its surface or with radar, it was thought that the rotation period of Venus was about four Earth days.
Since Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, it can always be found in the immediate vicinity of the Sun (its greatest elongation is 47.8°), so it can only be seen from Earth for a few hours before ortho (sunrise) in certain months of the year; also for a few hours after sunset (sunset) in the rest of the year. Despite this, when Venus is brightest it can be seen during the day, being one of the only three celestial bodies that can be seen with the naked eye during the day, apart from the Moon and the Sun. Known as the morning star ('Morning star') or evening star ('Evening star'), when visible in the night sky it is the second brightest object in the firmament after the Moon, so Venus must have already been known since prehistoric times.
Most of the ancient civilizations knew about the movements in the sky of Venus, for which reason it acquired importance in almost all the astrological interpretations of the planetary movement. In particular, the Mayan civilization developed a religious calendar based on astronomical cycles, including the cycles of Venus. The symbol of the planet Venus is a stylized representation of the mirror of the goddess Venus: a circle with a small cross below, also used today to denote the female sex.
The adjectives venusiano/a, venusino/a and venereo/a (poetically) are used to denote the characteristics usually attributed to Venus /Aphrodite. The adjective venereal is usually associated with sexually transmitted diseases. Venus and Earth (Greek goddess Gaea) are the only planets in the solar system with a female name.
Orbital characteristics
Orbit
Although all planetary orbits are elliptical, the orbit of Venus is the closest to a circle, with an eccentricity of less than 1.2%.
The cycle between two maximum elongations (synodic orbital period) lasts 584 days. After those 584 days Venus appears in a position at 72° of the previous elongation. Since there are five periods of 72° in a circle, Venus returns to the same point in the sky every eight years (minus two days for leap years). This period was known as the Sotis cycle in Ancient Egypt.
At inferior conjunction, Venus can come closer to Earth than any other planet. On December 16, 1850, it reached the closest distance to Earth since the year 1800, with a value of 39,514,827 kilometers (0.26413854 AU). Since then there has never been such a close approximation. An almost as close approach will be in the year 2101, when Venus will reach a distance of 39 541 578 kilometers (0.26431736 AU).
Rotation
Venus rotates very slowly in a retrograde motion, clockwise if the north pole is taken as a reference, from east to west instead of west to east like the rest of the planets (except Uranus, which is very tilted), taking 243,187 Earth days to make a complete turn on itself. The reason for the peculiar rotation of Venus is not known. If the Sun could be seen from the surface of Venus it would appear rising from the west and settling in the east, with a day-night cycle of 116.75 Earth days and a Venusian year of less than one stellar day (0.92 stellar days). Venusians).
In addition to retrograde rotation, Venus's orbital and rotational periods are synchronized so that it always presents the same face of the planet to Earth when the two bodies are closer together. This could be a simple coincidence but there are speculations about a possible origin of this synchronization as a result of tidal effects affecting the rotation of Venus when both bodies are close enough.
Synodic orbital period
It is the period that elapses between two inferior conjunctions with the Earth and lasts 583.92 days or 584 days. It is the synodic cycle or apparent year. Such days are terrestrial and add up to 1 year and 219 days, that is to say that during the synodic orbital period of Venus the Earth gives 1 orbit and 60% of another and Venus makes 2 orbits and 60% of another and at the same time gives 2, 4 rotations. 584 days can be structured into 8 periods out of 73. In turn, the synodic cycle is the basis of the following cycle formed by 5 synodic cycles between 5 inferior conjunctions during which the Earth orbits 8 (minus 2 days) and Venus 13 (with 12 rotations), which means that whenever we see Venus, it is at the same point on the Ecliptic as it was 8 years ago and will be 8 years from now, or that 8 Earth years equals 13 Venusian years.
Retrograde motion
It is in an East direction, it lasts 6 weeks and its intermediate moment is the inferior conjunction. Therefore, it begins 3 weeks before the inferior conjunction, covering the last 3 weeks of a synodic cycle and ends 3 weeks after the conjunction, covering the first 3 weeks of the next. For the remainder of the synodic cycle, Venus appears to go in a straight line to the East for 77 weeks, and the time in between is superior conjunction. The sum of the 6 and the 77 weeks complete the 83 of the synodic cycle. This pattern repeats every 83 weeks (584 days) up to 5 times in 8 years (according to the 5 inferior conjunctions in 8 years). This is the effect of Venus—which is moving faster than Earth—going in the same direction as Earth. The shape of the retrograde trace is the result of the sum of the proper movement of Venus and the translation of the Earth, and each one of the five is different because it depends on the stretch of orbit through which Venus circulates since its orbit is inclined and has two upper and lower sections and each one an ascending and descending section. Thus, although they seem to us to be disorderly movements, they are the effect that we observe from a subjective and mobile point of view (the Earth) in a space region in which both planets follow circular movements at their constant speeds, marking regular patterns in time.
Physical characteristics
Atmosphere of Venus
Venus has a thick atmosphere, composed mostly of carbon dioxide and a small amount of nitrogen. The pressure at surface level is ninety times the atmospheric pressure at the Earth's surface (an equivalent pressure in the Earth at the pressure that is submerged in water at a depth of one kilometer). The enormous amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes a strong greenhouse effect that raises the temperature of the planet's surface to about 464 °C in the least elevated regions near the equator. This makes Venus hotter than Mercury, despite being more than twice as far from the Sun as Mercury and receiving only 25% of its solar radiation (2613.9 W/m² in the upper atmosphere and 1071, 1 W/m² on the surface). Due to the thermal inertia of its massive atmosphere and the transport of heat by strong winds from its atmosphere, the temperature does not vary significantly between day and night. Despite Venus's slow rotation (less than one rotation per Venusian year, equivalent to a rotation speed at the equator of only 6.5 km/h), winds from the upper atmosphere circle the planet at an interval of only 4 days, effectively distributing heat. In addition to the zonal movement of the atmosphere from west to east, there is a vertical movement in the form of a Hadley cell that transports heat from the equator to the polar areas and even to mid-latitudes on the unilluminated side of the planet.
Solar radiation hardly reaches the surface of the planet. The dense cloud cover reflects most of the Sun's light back into space, and most of the light that passes through the clouds is absorbed by the atmosphere. This prevents most of the sunlight from heating the surface. Venus' bolometric albedo is about 60%, and its visual albedo is even higher, concluding that, despite being closer to the Sun than Earth, Venus's surface does not warm or brighten as it would. wait for the solar radiation it receives. In the absence of the greenhouse effect, the surface temperature of Venus could be similar to that of Earth. The enormous greenhouse effect associated with the immense amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps heat, causing the high temperatures of this planet.
Strong winds at the top of the clouds can reach 350 km/h, although at ground level the winds are much slower. Despite this, and due to the very high density of the atmosphere on the surface of Venus, even these light winds exert considerable force against obstacles. The clouds are composed mainly of droplets of sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid, and they completely cover the planet, hiding most of the surface detail from outside observation. The temperature at the top of the clouds (70 km above the surface) is −45 °C. The average temperature measurement on the surface of Venus is 464 °C. The surface temperature never falls below 400 °C, making it the hottest planet in the solar system.
Geology of Venus
Venus has a slow retrograde rotation, which means that it rotates from east to west, rather than from west to east as most of the other major planets do (Uranus also rotates retrograde, although the axis of rotation of Uranus, inclined 97.86°, practically rests on the orbital plane). Why Venus is different in this respect is unknown, although it could be the result of a collision with an asteroid sometime in the remote past. In addition to this unusual retrograde rotation, Venus's period of rotation and its orbit are nearly synchronized so that it always presents the same face to Earth when the two planets are at their closest approach (5,001 Venusian solar days between each inferior conjunction).). This could be the result of tidal forces affecting Venus's rotation whenever the planets are close enough, although the mechanism is not clear.
Venus has two main plateaus like continents, rising above a vast plain. The northern plateau is called Ishtar Terra and contains the largest mountain on Venus (approximately two kilometers higher than Mount Everest), named Maxwell Montes after James Clerk Maxwell. Ishtar Terra is about the size of Australia. In the southern hemisphere is Aphrodite Terra, larger than the previous one and with a size equivalent to that of South America. Between these plateaus there are some depressions in the terrain, including Atalanta Planitia, Guinevere Planitia and Lavinia Planitia. With the sole exception of Mount Maxwell, all distinguishable features of the terrain are named after mythological women.
Venus's thick atmosphere causes meteorites to break up abruptly on their descent, although larger ones can reach the surface, creating a crater if they have enough kinetic energy. Because of this, impact craters smaller than 3.2 kilometers in diameter cannot form.
About 90% of the surface of Venus appears to consist of recently solidified basalt (in geologic terms) with very few meteor craters. The oldest formations present on Venus appear to be no more than 800 million years old, with most of the soil considerably younger (no more than a few hundred million years for the most part), suggesting that Venus suffered a cataclysm. that affected its surface not long ago in the geological past.
The interior of Venus is probably similar to that of Earth: an iron core about 3,000 km in radius, with a rocky mantle making up most of the planet. According to data from the Magellan probe's gravity gauges, Venus' crust could be harder and thicker than previously thought. It is thought that Venus does not have moving tectonic plates like Earth, but instead massive volcanic eruptions occur, flooding its surface with "fresh" lava. Other recent discoveries suggest that Venus is still volcanically active.
Venus's magnetic field is very weak compared to that of other planets in the solar system. This may be due to their slow rotation, insufficient to form the "internal dynamo" system of liquid iron. As a result of this, the solar wind hits the atmosphere of Venus without being filtered. It is assumed that Venus originally had as much water as Earth but that, being subjected to the action of the Sun without any protective filter, the water vapor in the upper atmosphere dissociates into hydrogen and oxygen, the hydrogen escaping into space through its low atmosphere. molecular mass. The percentage of deuterium (a heavy isotope of hydrogen that does not escape so easily) in Venus' atmosphere seems to support this theory. Molecular oxygen is assumed to have combined with the atoms in the crust (although large amounts of oxygen remain in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide). Because of this dryness, the rocks on Venus are much heavier than those on Earth, which favors the formation of larger mountains, deep cliffs, and other formations.
For some time it was believed that Venus possessed a natural satellite called Neith, named after the Ancient Egyptian goddess Sais, whose veil no mortal could lift. It was apparently first observed by Giovanni Cassini in 1672. Other sporadic observations continued until 1892, but these sightings were discredited (they were mostly dim stars that seemed to be in the right place at the right time), and today it is known that Venus has no satellite, although asteroid 2002 VE68 almost is.
Water and habitability in the past
NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and others have postulated that Venus may have had a shallow ocean, with as much water as Earth's, which would help maintain habitable conditions for up to 2 billion years. Depending on the parameters supplied to their theoretical models, Venusian liquid water could have finished evaporating 715 million years ago. Today, all known water on Venus is in the form of a small amount of atmospheric vapor (20 ppm.) However, the European Space Agency's Venus Express probe detected in 2008 that Venus is still losing measurable amounts of hydrogen, one of the two constituent elements of water.
Internal structure
Without seismic information or details, moment of inertia, little direct data exists about the geochemistry and internal structure of Venus. However, the similarity in size and density between Venus and Earth suggests that both share a similar internal structure: a core, a mantle, and a crust. Like Earth, the core of Venus is speculated to be at least partially liquid. The smaller size and density of Venus indicates that the pressures inside it are considerably less than on Earth. The main difference between the two planets is the lack of plate tectonics on Venus, probably due to the dryness of the mantle and surface. As a consequence, heat loss to the planet is low, preventing its cooling and providing a viable explanation for the lack of an internal magnetic field.
Observation and exploration of Venus
Historical Observations
Venus is the most characteristic star in Earth's morning and evening skies (after the Sun and Moon), and has been known since prehistoric times. One of the oldest surviving documents from Ashurbanipal's Babylonian Library, dated to about 1600 B.C. C., is a 21-year record of the appearance of Venus (which the early Babylonians called Nindaranna). The ancient Sumerians and Babylonians called Venus “Dil-bat” or “Dil-i-pat”; in the Mesopotamian city of Akkad it was the star of the mother-goddess Ishtar, and in Chinese her name is “Jīn-xīng” (金星), the planet of the metal element. Venus was considered the most important of the celestial bodies observed by the Mayans, who called it "Chak ek" (the great star). In Ancient Greece, they thought that the morning and evening apparitions of Venus were of two different bodies, and they called them Hesperus when it appeared in the western sky at sunset, and Phosphorus when it appeared in the eastern sky at dawn.
Since the orbit of Venus is between the Earth and the Sun, from the Earth its different phases can be distinguished in a similar way to those of the Moon. Galileo Galilei was the first person to observe the phases of Venus in December 1610, an observation that supported the then-disputed heliocentric theory of Copernicus. He also noted changes in the size of the visible diameter of Venus in its different phases, suggesting that it was farthest from Earth when it was full and closest when it was waxing. These observations provided a solid foundation for the heliocentric model.
Venus is brightest when 25% of its disk (approximately) is illuminated, which occurs 37 days before inferior conjunction (in the evening sky) and 37 days after inferior conjunction (in the morning sky).. Its greatest elongation and height above the horizon occurs approximately 70 days before and after inferior conjunction, at which time it shows just half a phase; between these intervals, Venus is visible during the early or late hours of the day if the observer knows where to look for it. The period of duration of the retrograde movement of Venus is about forty-two consecutive days, divided into ~21 days before and ~21 days after the inferior conjunction.
On rare occasions, Venus can be seen in the morning and evening sky on the same day. This happens when it is at its maximum separation from the ecliptic and at the same time it is at the inferior conjunction; then from one of the terrestrial hemispheres it can be seen at both times. This opportunity presented itself to observers in the northern hemisphere for a few days on March 29, 2001, and the same thing happened in the southern hemisphere on August 19, 1999. These events repeat every 8 years according to the synodic cycle of the planet.
In the 19th century, many observers attributed Venus to a rotation period of approximately 24 hours. The Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli was the first to predict a significantly shorter rotation period, proposing that Venus's rotation was blocked by the Sun (the same thing he proposed for Mercury). Although not really true for either body, it was a pretty rough estimate. The rotation period of Venus was first observed during the 1961 conjunction with radar from a 26-meter antenna in Goldstone, California, from the Jodrell Bank Radio Astronomy Observatory in the United Kingdom, and at the Union Deep Space Facility. Soviet in Yevpatoria. Accuracy was refined in subsequent conjunctions, mainly from Goldstone and Eupatoria. The fact that the rotation was retrograde was not confirmed until 1964.
Prior to the radio observations of the 1960s, many believed that Venus contained an Earth-like environment. This was due to the size of the planet and its orbital radius, which strongly suggested an Earth-like situation, as well as the thick layer of clouds that prevented view of the surface. Among the speculations about Venus were those that it had a jungle environment or that it possessed oceans of oil or carbonated water. However, microwave observations in 1956 by C. Mayer et al., indicated a high surface temperature (600 K). Strangely, the observations made by A. D. Kuzmin in the millimeter band indicated much lower temperatures. Two competing theories explained the unusual radio spectrum: one suggested that the high temperatures originated in the ionosphere, and the other suggested a hot surface.
One of the phenomena in the atmosphere of Venus observed by astronomers from Earth and still not explained is that of the so-called Ashen lights.
On September 14, 2020, the journal Nature Astronomy announced the possible traces of life after observing Phosphins (PH3) in the upper layers of Venus' atmosphere. These phosphines could only be formed through the action of humans or as a metabolic residue of some bacteria. This would indicate that colonies of bacteria could form at these altitudes, demonstrating for the first time that life as known on Earth is possible on other planets.
Venus Transits
Venus transits occur when the planet crosses directly between Earth and the Sun and are relatively rare astronomical events. The first time this astronomical transit was observed was in 1639 by Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree. The 1761 transit, observed by the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, provided the first evidence that Venus had an atmosphere, and parallax observations of the century XIX during their transits allowed for the first time to obtain a precise calculation of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Transits can only occur in June or December, these being the moments in which Venus crosses the ecliptic (at the plane in which the Earth orbits the Sun), and occur in pairs at eight-year intervals, the transit pairs separated by more than a century. The previous pair of transits happened in December 1874 and December 1882, the most recent have been June 2004 and June 2012 and the next will be in December 2117 and December 2125.
The transit of Venus occurs because the orbit of Venus is tilted 3.5 degrees relative to Earth's so that the plane of Venus's orbit intersects Earth's at two points that are opposite, like a the equinoctial points of the Earth's orbit in relation to its own equatorial plane. Venus passes regularly every 584 days between the Earth and the Sun, but the transit occurs when Venus and the Earth coincide in aligning at one of those two intersection points and can do so twice in a row in 8 years, as in the case of the transits of 2004 and 2012. Since the encounters of Venus and Earth on the same side of the Sun show a precession of about 2 days every 8 years, the coincidence of both at the point of intersection occurs every little more than a hundred years.
Venus Space Exploration
Venus' orbit is 28% closer to the Sun than Earth's. For this reason, spacecraft traveling to Venus must travel more than 41 million kilometers into the Sun's gravitational well, losing some of their potential energy in the process. The potential energy is then transformed into kinetic energy, which translates into an increase in the speed of the ship. On the other hand, the atmosphere of Venus does not invite atmospheric braking maneuvers of the same type that other spacecraft have carried out on Mars, since for this it is necessary to have extremely precise information on the atmospheric density in the upper layers and, being Venus is a planet with a massive atmosphere, its outer layers are much more variable and complicated than in the case of Mars.
The first probe to visit Venus was the Soviet space probe Venera 1 on February 12, 1961, the first probe launched to another planet. The spacecraft was damaged en route and the first successful probe to reach Venus was the American Mariner 2, in 1962. On March 1, 1966, the Soviet probe Venera 3 crashed on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to reach the planet's surface. Subsequently, different Soviet probes were getting closer and closer in order to land on the Venusian surface. Venera 4 entered the atmosphere of Venus on October 18, 1967 and was the first probe to transmit data measured directly on another planet. The capsule measured temperatures, pressures, and densities, and performed eleven chemical experiments to analyze the atmosphere. Their data showed 95% carbon dioxide, and in combination with occultation data from the Mariner 5 probe, showed that the pressure at the surface was much higher than predicted (between 75 and 100 atmospheres). The first successful landing on Venus was made by the Venera 7 probe on December 15, 1970. This probe revealed surface temperatures of between 457 and 474 °C. La Venera 8 landed on July 22, 1972. In addition to giving data on pressure and temperatures, its photometer showed that the clouds of Venus formed a compact layer that ended 35 kilometers above the surface.
The Soviet probe Venera 9 entered Venus orbit on October 22, 1975, becoming the first artificial satellite of Venus. A battery of cameras and spectrometers returned information about cloud cover, the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere, as well as surface measurements made by radar. Venera 9's 660-kilogram descent vehicle separated from the main craft and landed, obtaining the first images of the surface and analyzing the crust with a gamma-ray spectrometer and hydrometer. During the descent, he made pressure, temperature and photometric measurements, as well as cloud density. The clouds of Venus were found to form three distinct layers. On October 25, Venera 10 performed a similar series of experiments.
In 1978, NASA sent the Pioneer Venus space probe. The mission consisted of two separately launched components: an orbiter and a multiprobe. The multiprobe consisted of a larger atmospheric probe and three smaller ones. The largest probe was deployed on November 16, 1978, and the three smaller ones on November 20. The four probes entered the atmosphere of Venus on December 9, followed by the vehicle that carried them. Although none were expected to survive the descent, one of the probes continued to operate for up to 45 minutes after reaching the surface. The Pioneer Venus Orbiter Vehicle was inserted into an elliptical orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978. It carried 17 experiments and operated until it ran out of maneuvering fuel, at which point it lost its orientation. In August 1992 it entered the atmosphere of Venus and was destroyed. The studies that were carried out with Pioneer Venus were mainly on the Interaction of the Venusian Ionosphere with the Solar Wind.
Space exploration of Venus was very active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Detailed knowledge of the surface geology of Venus began to be discovered, and unusually massive hidden volcanoes called coronae and arachnoids. Venus has no evidence of plate tectonics, unless the entire northern third of the planet is part of a single plate. The top two cloud layers turned out to be composed of sulfuric acid droplets, although the bottom layer is probably composed of a phosphoric acid solution. The Vega missions deployed hot air balloons that hovered at around 53 km altitude for 46 and 60 hours respectively, traveling around a third of the planet's perimeter. These balloons measured wind speeds, temperatures, pressures, and cloud density. A higher level of turbulence and convection than expected was discovered, including occasional bumps with drops of one to three kilometers from the probes.
On August 10, 1990, the US Magellan probe reached Venus, making radar measurements of the planet's surface and obtaining 100-m resolution maps of 98% of the planet. After a four-year mission, the Magellan probe, as planned, plunged into the Venusian atmosphere on October 11, 1994 and partly vaporized, although parts of it are assumed to have reached the planet's surface. Since then, several space probes en route to other destinations have used the Venus flyby method to increase their speed through gravitational momentum. This includes the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn (with two flybys), and the MESSENGER mission to Mercury (two flybys).
The European Space Agency runs a mission called Venus Express, which studies the atmosphere and surface features from orbit. Venus Express was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakhstan) on November 9, 2005, and despite the fact that it was expected to remain operational until December 2009, ESA decided to officially extend the mission until 2015. The Japan Exploration Agency Aerospace (JAXA) launched the PLANET-C mission on May 20, 2010, but because the probe did not decelerate enough to enter the orbit of the planet Venus, it passed by and entered solar orbit. After performing the last series of maneuvers in August 2015, the probe's rendezvous with Venus was scheduled for December 7, 2015. The second attempt was successful, placing the probe in orbit of Venus.
Terraforming Venus
Terraforming Venus is the theoretical process by which to modify its environment to make it habitable by human beings.
The terraforming of Venus was first proposed scientifically by astronomer Carl Sagan, in an article called The Planet Venus, in 1961.
To terraform Venus you would need:
- Reduce your surface temperature, estimated at 464 °C.
- Give him a hand magnetic field.
- Transform or eliminate most of its atmosphere, composed mainly of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide, and with a density of 9.2 MPa (91 atm).
- Add or extract oxygen from the planet.
- Transform the steam into liquid water (although the latter would be with the first).
Venus is, in fact, the second target for terraforming and expansion into space.
Cultural references
The planet Venus has inspired numerous religious and astrological references in ancient civilizations.
- The Mapuche people represent it with the guñelve, an octagonal star, which used in its flag during the Arauco War against the Spanish Conquest. It was added later with pentagonal masonic design in the canton of the current Chilean pavilion, adopted in 1817.
The mythological inspiration of Venus also extends to works of fiction such as:
- In The Silmarillionfrom J. R. R. Tolkien, mythological base The Lord of the RingsEärendil bears on his forehead one of the three Silmarils, and travels with his boat through the sky by mandate of Manwë to be the light of hope for men, thus giving a mythological explanation to Venus.
- In more modern times the absence of observable details on its surface was interpreted since the end of the centuryXIX as evidence of great clouds concealing a world rich in water speculating the presence of extraterrestrial life (Venusian beings) being a world frequently used in science fiction stories from 1920 to 1950, as well as in the work of Olaf Stapledon of 1930 entitled First and Last Men, provides a fictitious example of terraformation in which Venus is modified after a long and destructive war with its native inhabitants. Stanisław Lem wrote in 1951 The astronauts in which it refers a space journey to an imaginary Venus not yet known by the probes sent a few years later. Also several short stories of Ray Bradbury, like The Long Rain (“The Long Rain”, 1950), a story on which the film will be partially based The Illustrated Man (The illustrated man, 1969) Jack Smight, and All Summer in a Day (1959) describes Venus as a humid and potentially habitable planet. One of the last signs of this narrative representing that pantanous Venus was Isaac Asimov's novel The Oceans of Venus starring Lucky Starr, 1954.
Some more recent works that deal more realistically with the planet are:
- The author of science-fiction Paul Preuss wrote in his series of novels Venus Prime about the hypothesis of a livable Venus a billion years ago, which ceased to be because of the water vapor induced in its atmosphere by the coming bombing, which produced a greenhouse effect chain reaction. This hypothesis can be found in the sixth book of the series, translated in Spanish as The luminous beings.
- In his novel 3001: Final OdysseyArthur C. Clarke places a pioneer group of scientists on the surface of Venus, sheltered underground, while kites from the Kuiper belt are dragged into a collision orbit with the planet to increase its water supply and reduce temperature.
- In the Japanese animation film The Venus Wars (1989) directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the action takes place in a spontaneously terraformed Venus following the impact of a gigantic ice comet on the planet.
- Other science fiction films focused on the planet Venus are Queen of Outer Space (“The Queen of Outer Space”, 1958) by Edward Bernds, Der Schweigende Stern (“The First Spaceship to Venus”, 1959) by Kurt Maetzig, based on a story by Stanisław Lem, The astronauts (1951), and Русский (“The Planet of the Storms”, 1962) by Pavel Klushantsev.
Contenido relacionado
(10427) Klinkenberg
(1814)Bach
Speleology