Vesper Could Explore Earth's Fiery Twin

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A preliminary drawing of the proposed Vesper spacecraft. Credit: NASA
A preliminary drawing of the proposed Vesper spacecraft. Credit: NASA

Earth has a twin sister, and she's gone bad. The planet Venus is almost the same size as Earth, so it has been called Earth's twin. It's only about 30 percent closer to the sun than Earth, and at the dawn of the space age, scientists thought its cloudy atmosphere might hide a steamy jungle planet teeming with life. However, when the first American and Russian space probes visited Venus in the 1960s, it became clear that something had gone terribly wrong with the planet's ability to support life.


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Oct 10, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
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