UK scientists to lead the way to Venus
New mission will investigate the planet’s geology and atmosphere
The UK is to play a key role in an upcoming mission to study the planet Venus, EnVision. The spacecraft, selected in June by the European Space Agency (ESA), is a €610m project to study both Venus’s thick atmosphere and the surface volcanic activity which created it. It will be equipped with a radar system capable of penetrating not only the thick cloud, but the surface layer of the planet. It will also use spectrometers to pick out key gases in the atmosphere. The team will then take these findings and compare them with what we know about other planets, including Earth, hoping to gain some insight into why ours is the only planet that we know of with life.
“EnVision will take that experience to Venus to make sense of our most un-Earthly neighbour, and so help us understand what makes our own world so special,” says Richard Ghail from Royal Holloway University of London, lead scientist on the project. www.esa.int