naming and describing plant parts
Venus: Death of a Planet
Objectives
The mission's major objective is the first global examination of the atmosphere of Venus. The very hot and dense atmosphere appears to be completely different from the one around Earth. Existing meteorological models fail to predict the behavior of Venus' thicker blanket of gases.
Venus Express' objectives include the study of the huge greenhouse effect on Venus (the strongest found in the Solar System); the hurricane force winds that permanently encircle the planet; the mysterious ultraviolet absorption features at an altitude of about 80 km; the way solar wind particles interact with the upper atmosphere; the surface and geological activity; and the similarities/differences with our own planet.
Topics Long ago, from the fires of our Sun's birth, twin planets emerged: Venus and Earth. Nature draped one world in the greens and blues of life, while enveloping the other in acid clouds, high heat, and volcanic flows. Why did Venus take such a disastrous turn and Earth developed a vibrant biosphere? For as long as we have gazed upon the stars, they have offered few signs that somewhere out there are worlds as rich and diverse as our own (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm? Object=Venus&Display=OverviewLong).
Recently, though, astronomers have found ways to see into the bright lights of nearby stars. They've been discovering planets at a rapid clip using observatories like NASA's Kepler space telescope. A French observatory known as Corot and an array of ground-based instruments. The count is approaching 500 and rising. These alien worlds run the gamut from great gas giants many times the size of our Jupiter to rocky, charred remnants that burned when their parent star exploded. Some have wild elliptical orbits swinging far out into space then diving into scorching stellar winds. Still others orbit so close to their parent stars that their surfaces are likely bathed in molten rock.
Objectives
The mission's major objective is the first global examination of the atmosphere of Venus. The very hot and dense atmosphere appears to be completely different from the one around Earth. Existing meteorological models fail to predict the behavior of Venus' thicker blanket of gases.
Venus Express' objectives include the study of the huge greenhouse effect on Venus (the strongest found in the Solar System); the hurricane force winds that permanently encircle the planet; the mysterious ultraviolet absorption features at an altitude of about 80 km; the way solar wind particles interact with the upper atmosphere; the surface and geological activity; and the similarities/differences with our own planet.
Topics Long ago, from the fires of our Sun's birth, twin planets emerged: Venus and Earth. Nature draped one world in the greens and blues of life, while enveloping the other in acid clouds, high heat, and volcanic flows. Why did Venus take such a disastrous turn and Earth developed a vibrant biosphere? For as long as we have gazed upon the stars, they have offered few signs that somewhere out there are worlds as rich and diverse as our own (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm? Object=Venus&Display=OverviewLong).
Recently, though, astronomers have found ways to see into the bright lights of nearby stars. They've been discovering planets at a rapid clip using observatories like NASA's Kepler space telescope. A French observatory known as Corot and an array of ground-based instruments. The count is approaching 500 and rising. These alien worlds run the gamut from great gas giants many times the size of our Jupiter to rocky, charred remnants that burned when their parent star exploded. Some have wild elliptical orbits swinging far out into space then diving into scorching stellar winds. Still others orbit so close to their parent stars that their surfaces are likely bathed in molten rock.