Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 March 17

                     The Surface of Venus from Venera 13
       Image Credit: Soviet Planetary Exploration Program, Venera 13;
    Processing & Copyright: Donald Mitchell & Michael Carroll (used with
                                 permission)

   Explanation: If you could stand on Venus -- what would you see?
   Pictured is the view from Venera 13, a robotic Soviet lander which
   parachuted and air-braked down through the thick Venusian atmosphere in
   March of 1982. The desolate landscape it saw included flat rocks, vast
   empty terrain, and a featureless sky above Phoebe Regio near Venus'
   equator. On the lower left is the spacecraft's penetrometer used to
   make scientific measurements, while the light piece on the right is
   part of an ejected lens-cap. Enduring temperatures near 450 degrees
   Celsius and pressures 75 times that on Earth, the hardened Venera
   spacecraft lasted only about two hours. Although data from Venera 13
   was beamed across the inner Solar System almost 40 years ago, digital
   processing and merging of Venera's unusual images continues even today.
   Recent analyses of infrared measurements taken by ESA's orbiting Venus
   Express spacecraft indicate that active volcanoes may currently exist
   on Venus.

                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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