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Venus Probe Returns First Images
The BBC reports on the first images returned from Venus by the EU probe. From the article: "They show the hothouse planet's south pole from a distance of 206,452km. Mission scientists are already intrigued by a dark 'vortex' feature which can be clearly seen in one image. Venus Express will orbit the planet for about 500 Earth days to study its atmosphere, which is thought to have undergone runaway greenhouse warming." They're offering some high-rez images of the planet at the ESA website.
Was that clarification really necessary?
Oh i dunno.. maybe the avergae temperature being on avg. 890F, for example?
Personally, I think it was a severe lack of Mint Juleps and Long Island Iced Teas.
That and having all one's wooden stir sticks light on fire.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The Russians and Americans already satellited this ages ago. Well, this is the ESA, so what do you expect, but maybe next time around we can get a bot to drill into the ice of Europa (ESA, Europa...huh).
But I'm sure the enviro-nazis will be gleefully saying "see, see, you stupid non phds, this is what earth will become unless we all go back to hunters and gathers"
On a side note, and for a real country that knows how to explore space (USA), how is VGER and Pioneer doing? Do they still call home?
P.S. yeah, this was a rip on euroweenies. tit for tat.
Let's think about this for a second... What should Venus be like...
~ Not a lot of water.
~ Extreme temperatures.
~ No sign of intelligent life.
Does that ring a bell? Oh wait, it's exactly like the rest of the planets in our solar system...
And we just wasted *how* much money on finding that out?