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Venus—Retaining Her Mystery

Venus—Retaining Her Mystery
Venus—Retaining Her Mystery Venus as seen through a telescope is a fuzzy yellow planet completely enshrouded by sulfuric acid clouds. Only with radar can we penetrate the thick, obscuring layers to discern surface features. Earth-based radars, the Pioneer Venus orbiter and Veneras 15 and 16 all helped to reveal Venus' surface, but couldn't match the detail of Magellan's observations. This global view was created from data gathered by Magellan. Areas missed were filled with coarser Pioneer data, and the colors were based on data returned by the Venera 13 and 14 landers. JPL/NASA