The sharpest image ever taken of Venus.

From the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki.

The dark side shines in the infrared, which is how this photo was taken.

    • No_Eponym@lemmy.ca
      163·
      2 days ago

      My comrad in crisis, we can’t even keep this planet habitable, or build/select builders for reliable space vehicles after dropping billions of dollars on development and deployment. What makes you think we can even come close to the level of cooperation and competence needed to establish and maintain human habitation on such a hostile world?

      Let’s see if we can’t ensure continued habitation on Earth first. Then, maybe, we might have a chance on some other sphere?

      • joneskind@lemmy.world
        14·
        2 days ago

        I totally agree with you on that we should spend money on saving our perfectly fine and gorgeous planet instead of chasing useless dreams.

        But I’ve seen a video of Kurzgesagt explaining how “easy” it would be to terraform Venus compared to Mars. And since then I’ve been a defender of the idea that we should focus on Venus rather than Mars.

        Terrifying Fact: before Venus became the Hell it is today it was exactly like Earth. But at some point its average temperature reached 23°C. Water vapor being a greenhouse gas and a fantastic heat capacitor, it transformed the planet into a pressure cooker, leading to its current state

        The average temperature of planet Earth is 13°C, but with all the CO2 in the atmosphere we don’t know when that critical temperature could be reached.

        But hey, billionaires gotta get their billions, right?

      • Lycist@lemmy.world
        6·
        2 days ago

        I don’t disagree that we should focus on earth first, however - Tons of amazing technology has come out of funding for space-related activities, and I believe we should also continue working towards the goal of propagation of our species throughout the stars, if nothing more than for the potential of the incredibly useful technology that might come out of that pursuit.