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Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love. It is the brightest natural object in the night sky, except for the Moon.

Classified as a terrestrial planet, it is sometimes called Earth’s “sister planet”, because they are similar in size, gravity, and bulk composition. Venus is covered with an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light; this was a subject of great speculation until some of its secrets were revealed by planetary science in the twentieth century. Venus has the densest atmosphere of all the terrestrial planets, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, as it has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features, nor organic life to absorb it in biomass. It has become so hot that the earth-like oceans that the young Venus is believed to have possessed have totally evaporated, leaving a dusty dry desertscape with many slab-like rocks.

Compose this kind of images is not easy and requires lot of efforts. For example check foto 12 composition job:

Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the three eight-month cycles of Magellan radar mapping are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create this image. Magellan obtained coverage of 98 percent of the surface of Venus. Remaining gaps are filled with data from previous missions, (the Soviet Venera 15 and 16 radar and Pioneer Venus Orbiter altimetry) and data from Earth-based radar observations from the Arecibo radio telescope. Simulated color is used to enhance small-scale structures. The simulated hues are based on color images recorded by the Venera 13 and 14 landing craft. Maxwell Montes, the planet’s highest mountain at 11 kilometers (6.6 miles) above the average elevation, is the bright feature in the lower center of the image. Other terrain types visible in this image include tessera, ridge belts, lava flows, impact craters and coronae. The image was produced by the Solar System Visualization Project and the Magellan Science team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Multimission Image Processing Laboratory. The Magellan mission is managed by JPL for NASA’s Office of Space Science.

Or foto 13 composition job:

The Magellan spacecraft imaged more than 98% of Venus at a resolution of about 100 meters; the effective resolution of this image is about 3 km. A mosaic of the Magellan images (most with illumination from the west) forms the image base. Gaps in the Magellan coverage were filled with images from the Earth-based Arecibo radar in a region centered roughly on 0 degree latitude and longitude, and with a neutral tone elsewhere (primarily near the south pole). The composite image was processed to improve contrast and to emphasize small features, and was color-coded to represent elevation. Gaps in the elevation data from the Magellan radar altimeter were filled with altimetry from the Venera spacecraft and the U.S. Pioneer Venus missions. An orthographic projection was used, simulating a distant view of one hemisphere of the planet. The Magellan mission was managed for NASA by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. Data processed by JPL, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, and the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ.

1 A large Venus mosaic created from orange and UV filter images taken by the spacecraft Mariner 10 in 1974. Credit: NASA #

2 The dense carbon dioxide atmosphere of Venus shrouds the planet in a thick layer of clouds—and heats the surface to a scorching 460° C (860° F). Jim Hansen’s research on Venus’ greenhouse effect eventually led him to the study of carbon dioxide and the greenhouse effect on Earth. Credit: Mattias Malmer #

3 This global view of the surface of Venus is centered at 180 degrees east longitude. Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the first cycle of Magellan mapping, and a 5 degree latitude-longitude grid, are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create this image. Data gaps are filled with Pioneer-Venus Orbiter data, or a constant mid-range value. The image was produced by the Solar System Visualization project and the Magellan Science team at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL #

4 The clouds of Venus present distinctive patterns and markings visible in ultraviolet light, a wavelength the human eye can not see. The cause of the markings is the inhomogeneous distribution of a mysterious chemical in the atmosphere that absorbs ultraviolet light, creating the bright and dark zones. Credit: Venus Express / ESA #

5 Venus Monitoring Camera ultraviolet image taken from a distance of about 30000 kilometers. It shows numerous high-contrast features caused by an unknown aerosol in the clouds that absorbs ultraviolet light, creating the bright and dark zones. Credit: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA #

6 Venus at ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. The lower left shows a map of temperature inversion at the Venus cloud tops derived from the VIRTIS spectrometer on the planet’s night-side. Dark regions correspond to cold cloud tops. The upper right is an ultraviolet image of the Venusian day side, captured simultaneously by the Venus Monitoring Camera. Credit: ESA/VMC/VIRTIS #

7 With the arrival of Venus Express, ESA is the only space agency to have science operations under way around four planets: Venus, the Moon, Mars and Saturn. Credit: Venus Express / ESA #

8 This global view of the surface of Venus is centered at 180 degrees east longitude. Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the first cycle of Magellan mapping are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create this image. October 29, 1991. Credit: NASA/JPL #

9 The northern hemisphere is displayed in this global view of the surface of Venus. The north pole is at the center of the image, with 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees east longitudes at the 6, 3, 12, 9 o'clock positions, respectively, of an imaginary clock face. October 29, 1991. Credit: NASA/JPL #

10 This global view of the surface of Venus is centered at 0 degrees east longitude. October 29, 1991. Credit: NASA/JPL #

11 This global view of the surface of Venus is centered at 90 degrees east longitude. October 29, 1991. Credit: NASA/JPL #

12 The northern hemisphere is displayed in this global view of the surface of Venus. The north pole is at the center of the image, with 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees east longitudes at the 6, 3, 12, and 9 o'clock positions, respectively, of an imaginary clock face. October 29, 1991. Credit: NASA/JPL #

13 Hemispheric View of Venus Centered at the North Pole Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS #

14 Hemispheric View of Venus Centered at the South Pole Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS #

15 Hemispheric View of Venus Centered at 0 Degrees East Longitude. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS #

16 Hemispheric View of Venus Centered at 90 Degrees East Longitude. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS #

17 Hemispheric View of Venus Centered at 180 Degrees East Longitude. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS #

18 Hemispheric View of Venus Centered at 270 Degrees East Longitude. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS #

19 Images acquired from the VIRTIS instrument onboard Venus Express have been used to track cloud features at different vertical levels producing a first global view of the winds on Venus from 45-70 km altitude. Agustin Sánchez-Lavega, from the Universidad del País Vasco in Bilbao, Spain, led the research on 3-D wind mapping with data from the first year of VIRTIS observations. September 2008. Credit: Venus Express / ESA #

20 This animation is composed of six different images (in false colour) taken by VIRTIS between April 12 and April 19, 2006, and shows the rotation and shape variation of a double vortex at Venus' south pole over time. The sequences were obtained during different time slots and at different distances from Venus. Around the south pole it is possible to see a peculiar double-eye vortex structure, never clearly seen by any other mission before. December 2008. Credit: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Observatoire de Paris-LESIA #