How Venus features in the search for life beyond earth

According to scientists, Venus offers us a glimpse of earth’s past and future.

It may once have had water in liquid form, as our planet does today, while today its fierce heat could hint at a time when our rapidly warming home planet no longer features the temperatures that maintain the lifegiving liquid.

Meanwhile, the attention, so far, has been on getting to Mars, in hope of someday colonising the red planet as a second habitat. Does that mean that Venus is off the global space agenda?

Not at all – in fact, as we learn in this video, NASA is currently planning two missions to Venus to assess if the now-toxic planet once had an ocean, continents and life. Scientists are beginning the effort on earth, by training sensors and machine-learning systems to analyse the building blocks of our own planet.

View the original video here.

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